Opacity
by L.M. Avalon
Summary: Kagome loves photography, especially of urban exploration... which means creepy, abandoned, decaying buildings. Unfortunately, she gets in over her head when she meets something not quite normal. In fact, it might just be supernatural. AU. IK MS
1. Awakening

This idea just popped into my head, and I decided to put it to paper and see where it went. Please enjoy. **I vote you try reading it alone in the dark.** ] It'll up the creepiness factor I was going for.

Inspiration: Photographs from the website Opacity, urban exploration, zombies, and the television show _Supernatural_.

Thanks to **PermanentlyFrozen **for helping with this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Opacity<p>

Awakening

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><p>When Kagome came to—very slowly—the first thing she noticed was that there was blood soaking through her sweater. The next thing she noticed was that her arms were tied behind her in a tight, uncomfortable way that made her panic when she couldn't pull them free to check herself for injuries. It was obvious after several more seconds as she forced her foggy mind to focus that she had hit her head. Hard. Faintly, in some far corner of her mind, Kagome remembered that head wounds bled <em>a lot<em>, which explained why there was so much dried blood splattered across her chest and lap. What she could not remember, however, was why she was tied to a chair, her head cut open and bleeding heavily, and only just now waking up. Had she been asleep? Had she been forcibly knocked out?

A strangled, panicked noise wrenched itself from her throat, but she winced as soon as it did. Her throat was dry and hurting, and she was certain that she couldn't speak even if she tried. A slow pound started at her temples, sharpening the headache caused by the gash in her forehead.

As slowly as she could to keep from getting dizzy, Kagome looked around the room. The walls were rotting with paint peeling off in giant strips. The floor was pot-marked with holes, and entire planks of wood were missing. She was tied to a very old, cobwebbed chair. There was no one else in the room. Eventually, Kagome noticed a pile of broken items dumped in the corner. As soon as she recognized what they were, she gasped, eliciting another wince when pain shot through her throat.

Her camera…

Tears welled in her eyes, almost overflowing. Partly, it was because that camera and her other photography equipment had been expensive—meaning she'd spent a year working two jobs to earn enough money to buy them—but also, partly, it was because she had the ridiculous idea that if whoever had kidnapped her (was it still called kidnapping if it was done to an adult?) could break a camera then they would have no problem hurting a defenseless woman.

"Okay, okay," Kagome mumbled—or tried to, anyway. She'd been right; her throat was too dry to produce any sound. "Everything's okay," she continued anyway, mouthing the words silently to herself, a part of her wishing desperately to hear her own voice as if that would calm her down. Trying to quell the panic rising in her chest, Kagome attempted to remember what had happened. She decided to start with that morning—

Or, well, the last morning she remembered waking up. Hopefully it _was _"that morning" and not some other morning that had taken place days earlier.

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><p>"I'm leaving now!" Kagome announced loudly from the kitchen, snatching two pieces of toast from the toaster and wrapping them in a paper towel to take with her.<p>

Her roommate, a pretty brunette named Sango, looked up from where she was sitting on the couch. The two women shared a studio apartment downtown, which meant that it was little more than a medium-sized room with everything shoved into it. Besides a tiny bathroom closed off in a corner, there was a beat-up couch that they had found on some stranger's curb waiting for the trash, a small television that Kagome had "inherited" (read: stole) from her mother's house, and two twin beds pushed against the far wall. It was cramped, but it was home.

Sango tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, carefully weighing her next words. She looked Kagome over with an amused shake of her head, trying not to laugh at the woman, who looked more than a little silly. She was dressed in a warm sweater, old jeans, and a knit cap and carried a duffle bag as big as she was stuffed with photography equipment. "Be careful, okay?" Sango asked.

"Yes, _mom_," Kagome agreed with a laugh. She hoisted her duffle bag back to her shoulder after it slipped down to her elbow. Both girls were in their mid-twenties, but Sango was by far the more mature one of the two.

"Seriously, Kagome," Sango continued, allowing her smile to degrade into a stern frown. "I hate this little hobby of yours. Climbing all over abandoned buildings, taking pictures while you stand on rotting floors? I don't want you to get hurt. Can't you at least take Kouga with you?"

Rolling her eyes, Kagome placed her hands on her hips; unfortunately, she looked ridiculous because she was holding the enormous bag and a paper towel full of toast while she did so. "Things have been less awkward since our breakup last year, but I don't want to push it. Don't worry! I'll be _fine. _I promise. My cellphone's fully charged, and the building is less than a mile from a housing development, so someone could totally hear me if I yelled for help. It's not like I haven't done this a dozen times."

"Once again, I'd like to point out that it's illegal to trespass on private property, even if it's only to take pictures of creepy, rundown buildings. Doesn't wandering around a century old insane asylum freak you out? People probably _died_ there."

"Freak me out?" Kagome echoed, her eyebrows rising to her hairline in surprise. "Of course not! It's going to be really cool. I'll get some great shots for my portfolio. Plus, I'll be there in the daytime. How is that creepy?"

Giving up, Sango heaved an exasperated sigh and returned her eyes to the newspaper spread out over her lap. "Be careful," she repeated, her voice defeated. "And don't get caught. Neither of us has enough money to bail you out of jail."

Laughing Sango's warning off as a joke, Kagome gave her best friend a mocking kiss on the cheek (as though the brunette really was her mother) and left the apartment. She skipped down the stairs, running over her plans in her head as she went. Kaede, their elderly landlady, had lent Kagome her car for the day. It was an hour-long drive to get out of the city, another half hour drive to reach the site, and finally a ten minute hike through some woods to get to the abandoned asylum. The building was set back from the road in a cluster of trees, possibly to hide the screams of the patients it housed long ago.

The drive went by quicker than she'd expected, and Kagome didn't even mind that the radio was stuck on the "golden oldies" station; she even sang along to most of the songs. It was less than a minute after she drove past the housing development she had mentioned to Sango that Kagome found a place to park the car on the side of the street. From where she sat, she could see part of the asylum looming above the treetops. Built over a century ago, it was a massive stone structure with roman columns, decorative molding, large windows, and vaulted ceilings. There was no doubt that it would smell musty and dank, but Kagome had long since gotten used to that thanks to how often she visited similar sites.

Just after Kagome locked the car and started toward the trees, two men materialized from the underbrush, walking her way and arguing intensely with one another.

Unseen for the moment, Kagome studied them. They were young, less than thirty years old and maybe even as young as Kagome, and tall. One had dark hair and a lean, lanky body while the other man was more muscular. Her eyes slid appreciatively over his figured, which looked good despite his multiple layers: a pair of jeans (which he wore well), a flannel button-down, and a tan carpenter's jacket. He had ridiculously white hair that was pulled back in a ponytail with a knit cap pulled tightly over it, hiding the top of his head.

Even though she tried not to attract attention to herself, the men noticed Kagome before they were close enough for her to overhear anything they were saying.

"Hey! Hey, you there!" the one with white hair shouted at her. As he moved closer, Kagome noticed his overly moody expression.

"Hi!" Kagome responded cheerfully, positioning her body in front of her duffle bag. "What can I do for you?"

"You? What can _you_—?" the man demanded incredulously, but his friend cut him off.

"Hello," the other one, the dark-haired one, called out in a much friendlier tone. His voice and stance were charming and personable, which would have put Kagome at ease if the situation wasn't already so very weird. "Could you—please—tell us what you're doing all the way out here?"

Having not bothered to make up a cover story—normally Kagome sneaked into the abandoned buildings since, as Sango had pointed out, it was technically breaking and entering—she fumbled with her answer, deciding after a few awkwardly silent seconds that she might as well tell the truth. "Oh, I came out here to take some pictures of the old asylum. I'm building a portfolio of my work to submit to one of the city's photography magazines; I'm kind of into urban exploration."

The dark-haired man opened his mouth to respond, but the other one cut _him_ off this time. "That's trespassing."

"Are you guys cops?" Kagome asked shrewdly, her eyes sweeping over them both quickly. They were young, attractive, and well-built, but neither exuded the aura of a police officer.

"No," the surly man snapped, "but we could report you to one." It was only then that Kagome noticed that there wasn't something quite right about him—his collar was torn, and there was dirt and what looked like blood splattered across his sleeve. A shallow cut was on his face, along his cheekbone from his ear to his mouth.

"Are you okay?" Kagome asked instead, concern overtaking her expression and the tone of her voice. Although photography was her real passion, one of Kagome's two jobs was a nurse at the city hospital. "I have a first aid kit in the car."

Clearly surprised, the man took a step back and put a hand self-consciously to his injured cheek. "No… that's—that's okay, I'm fine."

"Get that cleaned up before it gets infected," Kagome told him in her 'nurse voice,' friendly but with stern, clipped words. "Anyway, I swear I'm just going to be in and out of there within a couple of hours."

Since the white-haired man still looked taken-aback after the woman (a stranger!) had shown him concern, even after he had been rude, the dark-haired man stepped smoothly in—but not before casting an amused look in his friend's direction. "You see, we're building inspectors," he explained with a serious look on his face, "and we're just concerned about you going in there because the asylum could collapse any day now. The foundation is rotting away."

Kagome decided to believe him since they did sort of look like they could be building inspectors. How could she prove it, anyway? Ask for a badge? A business card? She waved his words away dismissively, smiling confidently at the two men. "I do this all the time. I swear, I'll be careful, and I really will be in there for a little while. You have my word that I won't sue if something happens," she joked lightly.

The two men exchanged a quick look, communicating silently. Both looked away after a moment, seeming resigned. "You'll be out before nightfall?" the dark-haired man asked.

The woman glanced at her watch. It was almost noon. It was late fall, so the sun would be down around six in the evening. Six hours was more than enough time to get in, take some photographs, and get out. "Yes," she confirmed.

"Seriously," the white-haired one pushed insistently. He'd forgotten his earlier surprise and was back to being a little gruff. Silently, Kagome wondered why being so rough around the edges made him seem extra attractive to her. "You need to get out of there before it's dark out. Also, stay out of the basement and the inner rooms, anywhere that's dark and blocked off from the sun."

"Those are the most, uh, dilapidated," his friend explained, although his voice sounded funny, as though he was grappling with his words and choosing them on the spot. "More likely to collapse, I mean."

Something about the conversation seemed very peculiar to Kagome, but she couldn't put her finger on what, so she shrugged. "Deal," she agreed, holding out her hand to shake theirs.

The dark-haired man pumped her hand quickly and let go, but the other's grip lingered, making Kagome feel unbalanced and feverish at his touch. She tried to tamp down the blush rising in her cheeks. Why hadn't physical contact with the first man make her as uncomfortable when they were both equally attractive? The white-haired man also seemed honestly worried about her. "Maybe we should go with you, just in case," he suggested.

Now both men looked worried, and Kagome felt a little perplexed. Was it just her or was there an underlying meaning to the conversation that she was missing?

"We don't have time; we need to get back to the city and do some research," the dark-haired man (Kagome was beginning to wish she knew their names) said in a low voice, as though Kagome wouldn't hear him even though she was standing right next to them. "As long as she's out before sundown, she'll be fine."

Feeling like she needed to reassure the men, Kagome pasted on her most brilliant smile and patted each on the arm. "I promise to be on my way well before nightfall."

"And…?"

"And to not go into the basement. Now, if you boys will excuse me, I better get moving if I want to be done by my new curfew."

She was halfway to the tree line before he—the white-haired one that made her stomach feel fluttery—called after her, "Be careful!"

Turning on her heel, Kagome waved at them, still smiling even though she was confused. At least, she thought, if she did get caught by a patrolman, she could explain that some building inspectors gave her the green light to explore the abandoned asylum. It would've been nice to know why the two men were so on edge, though. Plus, as far she knew, nightfall did not make buildings more likely to collapse, so their argument was more than a little strange. Once she entered the forested area, all sounds from the road were cut off, wrapping her in silence.

True to her word, Kagome mostly took exterior shots of the asylum and then worked her way around the peripherals of the building, sticking to the outermost rooms except for when she had to venture deeper within to find a staircase. On the second level, she ate lunch on a balcony, enjoying the chilly air ruffling her long hair. It wasn't until almost four in the afternoon when she was beginning to wind down (the building had been much larger than she thought, and it had taken longer than she'd expected to photograph even a small section of it) that Kagome noticed a storm was brewing. Dark, rolling clouds approached very quickly from the west. The wind picked up, and Kagome could feel the humidity in the air. Soon, the sun faded as the overcast sky blocked it out. The chilliness in the air—it _was _almost winter after all—in addition to the weak sun made Kagome shiver.

Until then, she'd forgotten she was in an insane asylum. The autopsy room, morgue, laboratory, and other more questionable rooms were hidden deeper in the building, so Kagome had been focusing on the far less creepy patients' rooms and doctors' quarters.

Packing up her things, Kagome lovingly put her camera and tripod into the duffle bag. Hoisting it up to her shoulder, she walked toward the old staircase and began picking her way down, noticing how without the sun, the inner rooms had been plunged into an eerie darkness. As she approached the landing that led to the first floor, Kagome sensed movement on the flight of stairs below her, the one that led to the basement. Certain it wasn't her imagination when she heard a floorboard creak, the woman froze where she was, listening for more sounds of life.

Feeling ridiculous, Kagome found her voice and called out, "Hello?"

With bated breath, she waited, but there was no response. It was probably a stray cat or a squirrel or something that had found its way inside through one of the many broken windows. Taking the last step down to the landing, Kagome peeked over the banister at the flight of stairs below her. It ended in darkness—the basement. A shadow, slightly darker than the space around it, seemed to shift just behind the door frame. Stifling a gasp—and then a nervous giggle, remembering how she'd told Sango that morning that an abandoned insane asylum would not freak her out—Kagome tried again. "Hello? Anyone down there?"

"Yes," said a very low voice from behind her, his mouth right next to her ear. A breath stirred her hair, and Kagome whirled around. She barely managed to catch a glimpse of him, or _it_, when the figure reached up and pushed her.

Desperately, Kagome threw her arms out as she fell backwards, trying to make contact with something that could help her find her balance before she tumbled down the stairs. Her fingers slid against the wall, the dry paint crumbling under her fingertips, and then she went down, cracking her forehead against one of the steps as she went.

Which brought her to the present: bloody and tied to a chair.

With a moan, half pained and half regretful, Kagome wondered if she had been the one who had broken her own camera equipment when she fell on it. Trying to be reasonable, she also decided that if her throat was that dry, then she must have been knocked out for several hours. That would also explain her stiff shoulders, sore from the way she was tied up, and why her forehead had congealed enough to stop pouring blood.

Now to figure out who had put her in that position.

Kagome knew she had seen his face, but she struggled to remember it. He was tall and gauntly thin, pale enough that his skin stood out in the darkness. Sunken cheeks, dull eyes, and long, dark, tangled, dirty hair that hung well past his shoulders completed his ghoulish appearance. He looked half starved, but the strength with which he shoved her had been impressive. For a moment, Kagome imagined that his teeth had been sharp—not just the canines, but all of them, filed into jagged points like a shark.

Had those men she had run into earlier known about the man? Was that why they had been so reluctant to let her go to the asylum alone? No. They had only warned her to get out while the sun was still out; they'd said nothing about some creepy, homicidal man hiding in the building. As far as Kagome knew, there was no reason why the man would only come out at night, so warning her to get out before nightfall seemed unrelated. Unless he was a vampire.

A vampire!

For just a moment, Kagome entertained that idea in her head before tossing it away with a guffaw at her own childishness. Of course it wasn't a vampire. He was probably just a desperate, homeless man.

With a creak, the door opposite her opened.

No one came in, unnerving Kagome even more than she already was.

Her eyes scoured the room again, looking for the source of light that let her see. Set high up on the walls were candles, and the flames flickered in a draft. After another few seconds, she could hear footsteps pounding as someone walked across the room above her. They stopped directly overhead, waited almost a full minute, and then continued on. A shiver stole down Kagome's spine.

Suddenly, there was a shout, the whole ceiling shook, and dust drifted down to cover Kagome. Everything went quiet.

Spooked, Kagome struggled against the rope that bound her. The skin around her wrists was rubbed raw, and the smallest movement sent sharp jabs of pain up her arms. Stifling a cry of panic, she tugged harder, wishing the chair she was sitting on was old and rotten enough to break just by jostling it enough. "Please, please," she whispered hoarsely, begging herself not to cry.

There was another thud, and then she heard footsteps thud down a flight of stairs, slow and steady. There was a pause, and then the footsteps continued, sounding closer, right outside the open door of the room in which she was tied up. Kagome stopped struggling and held her breath, staring with wide eyes at the dark entrance. Finally, the person came through—

It was the white-haired man from earlier. He was covered in dirt and dust and more blood, and he was carrying a huge gun pointed straight ahead of him (at Kagome, actually), which made her heart stumble to a stop. He did not look happy.

"Oh, good, you're still alive," he said, lowering the gun. Kagome wanted to say it was a shotgun, but it looked like the end had been chopped off. The man jogged to her and knelt down, quickly untying her. "You promised to be gone by sundown," he accused, looking up at her with a stormy expression. Up close, he was even more impressive—all strong jaw, smooth skin, and a classic nose.

Kagome opened her mouth to retort, but all that came out was a squeak and a broken sound that didn't really make sense. Nodding in understanding, the man withdrew a flask from an inside coat pocket.

With a dubious look, Kagome took the flask from him, trying very hard not to look at her injured wrists.

"It's water," the man clarified, sucking in a hissing breath when he saw her wrists. He held her free hand, turning it over to examine her injuries. Kagome's heart slowed to another stop, and she cursed her fluttering stomach. Now was _not _the time. "Well, holy water, but you shouldn't taste anything different… Unless you're not human." Kagome took a sip, then another, and then gulped down half the flask before the man snatched it back. "Hey, I might need that!"

"It was still afternoon," Kagome informed him with a glare, rejoicing when her voice came out clear and her throat no longer hurt as much. "It wasn't nighttime! Well, except the storm sort of made it dark early, and the staircase was pitch black."

"You're an idiot," the man told her, but not exactly harshly. His voice was more exasperated than angry. "We told you to stay out of dark places."

"Yeah, but you didn't say _why_!"

He opened his mouth to yell back at her, but they were interrupted by another thudding noise overhead. Lowering his voice, the man continued, "Just be happy you weren't lunch, and we got back here when we did. Now let's get you out of here, okay?"

"Who are you?" Kagome asked, getting to her feet unsteadily. She almost fell over because her legs were asleep, but she caught herself on the back of the chair.

"Oh, yeah, Inuyasha," the man identified himself with a distracted grin. "The other guy's Miroku, my partner."

"Partner?" Kagome echoed, sounding disappointed even to her own ears. "Oh, I see. You two make a… a lovely couple."

Inuyasha spluttered, managing to look both outraged and disgusted. "No! No. _Business _partner. Well, hunting partner, I guess. Not my… not _that_."

"Hunting? What do you hunt?"

"Monsters, demons, evil spirits… Stuff like the thing that snatched you. We weren't expecting trouble from this ghoul during the day—all previous victims were taken during the evening or at night—which is why we stupidly let you come here alone. We had to do some research into the history of the building, and it's—shit, it's all a pain in the ass, really. I just want to kill the things, but Miroku's always insisting we learn more about them first. Whatever the thing is, Naraku would've eaten you if we'd waited any longer."

Kagome pushed away from the chair and wobbled on her feet but managed to stand. She cast a look at her broken photography equipment in the corner and tamped down the sadness threatening to overtake what was left of her good sense. It looked sad with its cracked lens and broken shoulder strap. "Naraku?" she asked instead to distract herself.

The man—Inuyasha—stepped forward and put a hand to the small of her back to guide her out of the room. With his other hand, he hefted his gun and kept it aimed ahead of them. They walked slowly and quietly through the doorway and toward the basement stairs. "He was the head physician at the asylum about ninety years ago. Now he's some creepy spirit thing that takes trespassers and eats them. Only comes out at night. Or, whenever it's dark, I guess."

"He eats people? Like a zombie?" Kagome whispered.

"Sort of. Think more hungry, evil spirit and less reanimated corpse. Miroku thinks he's afraid of light. I don't really care. I do the shooting."

"So, you're not really the brains of this little operation, are you?" Kagome teased. When he looked down at her, she couldn't hide the silly grin on her face. "Just the brawn, then."

They were only halfway up the stairs when something shimmered in front of them, like an old television that you had to adjust to see the image. Inuyasha stopped short, wrapping his arm around Kagome's waist and yanking her into his side as if his arm alone could shield her from damage. After several seconds, the form appeared fully and then seemed to… solidify or something, no longer transparent, like Naraku was still a living man. When he reached in Kagome's direction, she got the feeling that he'd actually make contact and not pass right through her like she imagined a spirit would. Unable to move, her feet glued to the rotten step below her, she cowered into the crook of the hunter's arm.

With a deafening _bang_, the shotgun went off, and Naraku splattered. There was no blood, but he seemed to explode in front of them in a very gross, indescribable kind of way with matter flying everywhere.

"Come on, he'll reform in a few minutes. We have to get you out the front door; he shouldn't be able to leave the building."

"How is he able to do that? I mean, touch people and reform and stuff?" Kagome asked in a trembling voice, looking over her shoulder at the spot where the spirit had been, stumbling along with only Inuyasha to guide her.

"Because he's so old and demented," someone else explained, his voice spooking Kagome enough that she jumped. She snapped her head back to the front so fast that she worried she gave herself whiplash. At the top of the stairs, leaning casually against the banister, was Miroku. He had a charming, unruffled smile on his face. Although logic told Kagome that he must have been the one making the thumps of noise overhead while battling the spirit, he looked much less dirty and blood-spattered than Inuyasha did. "The older the spirit, the stronger it is. However, the longer a spirit hangs around, the more insane it becomes. Naraku's a nasty piece of work by now."

"Hi, I'm Kagome," she told him when all other words failed her. Her brain was struggling to keep up with everything, slowed by her head injury and the sheer shock of what was happening around her. "So, you two really aren't building inspectors, huh? Like, _at all_?"

The two men shared an amused look. Inuyasha, however, shrugged at his partner. "Give the girl a break; it looks like she hit her head pretty hard. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming she's not as dumb as all her questions make her sound."

Offended, Kagome ripped her arm out of his grip and placed both hands on her hips. "For your information, I graduated at the top of my class and was even accepted into a top-tier medical school!" She left out the unnecessary detail that she didn't go to that medical school because she couldn't have afforded it. No matter how slow her brain was processing things, she was still fast enough to know that now was not the time.

"In her defense, Inuyasha," Miroku pointed out practically, "she's only just learned that things like demons and monsters exist. I'm pretty sure that would unsettle anyone. Well, except for maybe a half-demon who had to adjust to living in a world where he didn't quite fit in anywhere at all."

In response, Inuyasha sent him a very dirty look. Kagome looked back and forth between the two men, once again knowing that there was more to their conversation than what she understood.

Stubbornly, Inuyasha reached out and grabbed Kagome's arm despite her protests. He pushed up her up the last couple of stairs and spun her in the direction of the front door. "Go through there, get off the porch. He can't get you in the woods, so you'll be fine making it back to your car. Just go."

The asylum around them seemed very quiet, even without the creaking that was expected from a decaying, century-old building. Automatically, Kagome took a step forward but paused. "And after that?" she asked doubtfully.

"You drive away," Miroku explained gently. "Just drive away and forget all this ever happened."

"You seriously think I can forget that there are—are—_demons _out there? Things that really go bump in the night? I don't think that's possible."

"Eh," Inuyasha said, scratching the back of his head with the muzzle of his shotgun. His knit cap shifted but stayed on. "People do it all the time. I think they're grateful to forget. The ones we save, I mean. They just go back to their little lives and leave the monsters to people like us."

"It was very nice meeting you," his friend said with another gentle smile. "I hope we never have to meet again." She knew that Miroku meant that he hoped she never had another run-in with the supernatural, which meant they never would have a reason to meet again.

"You, too," she responded softly, taking one last look at the two men. It _did _make her feel better knowing there were people out there who took care of monsters, but she felt uneasy leaving them to fight the spirit alone. Not that an injured photographer could help all that much. "Good luck."

Within seconds, Kagome had made it safely to the front porch. The moment both of her feet touched the ground beyond the steps, the door behind her slammed shut. Whirling around, Kagome listened with her heart in her throat as there was a shout—it sounded like Miroku, she thought—and a thud against the wall that made the windows rattle. There was more yelling, the shotgun went off twice with a brief pause in-between that must have meant Inuyasha was reloading, and then a weird, inhuman shriek. Unable to walk away, Kagome waited on the grass, watching as everything fell into stillness and silence once more. The idea of leaving them without ever finding out if both Inuyasha and Miroku were alive left her overwhelmed with guilt.

A minute later, the front door creaked open, but no one came out.

Kagome put a hand to her mouth, counting the seconds. There was movement, and Kagome saw Naraku flicker in the doorway as if straining to step onto the porch.

"Come here," the man, spirit, _thing _called in a sinister voice.

"No," Kagome whispered, taking a step backward.

"Come here, or I'll _eat_ them."

"Well, that's disgusting," she told him with a frown. "Why are you doing this?"

"It's so lonely here," Naraku said in a low, almost seductive voice. "I just want some friends to stay with me."

"Bullshit," Kagome countered, crossing her arms over her chest to keep from shivering. "Seriously? What's up with all this?"

There was a loud _bang_, and Naraku dissipated. Miroku appeared in the doorway, looking far more ruffled than he had earlier with a trail of blood flowing from his lower lip down his chin. "I think," he said, looking wobbly on his feet, "I think that there's a lot of pissed off dead people waiting for Naraku. Imagine all the people he tortured in the name of medicine and research while he ran the asylum. He's too afraid to leave this world and move on."

With a shudder, Kagome recalled some of the disturbing ways people with mental problems were treated in the early twentieth century. Horrible, awful things that went beyond lobotomies and electric shock therapy, things like removing teeth or organs to get rid of the so-called diseased parts of the body that caused insanity. "So, what do we do?"

"_We_ do nothing," snapped Inuyasha, appearing next to Miroku. He rubbed his head with a wince. It took several moments for Kagome to figure out what was wrong with him—his hat was gone and sitting on top of his hair were two little, white triangles. From that distance, Kagome wasn't sure what they were. "You're supposed to be leaving, remember? We, as in me and Miroku, are going to find his corpse and destroy it."

"You'll find it faster with three people looking," Kagome pointed out stubbornly.

"Why would you willingly help us when we're giving you an out?" Inuyasha demanded, his confusion making him sound more defensive and angry that Kagome believed he actually was.

"It's the right thing to do?" With a resolute look in the hunters' direction, Kagome stepped back onto the porch. "Now let's do this."

Once again, the two hunters shared an amused but resigned look. "Fine," Inuyasha said. "Stick with Miroku; you two explore the big rooms _together_, and I'll look through all the smaller rooms and hallways."

When she finally reached them, Kagome studied Inuyasha's head and realized the two white triangles were _ears—_fluffy, white, puppy-like ears. Miroku's 'half-demon' comment earlier didn't seem so confusing now.

"What?" Inuyasha snapped. He hadn't realized his hat was gone.

"Nothing," Kagome answered in a small voice. She moved closer to Miroku, who looked on knowingly but said nothing. "Let's go."

The group parted as Miroku and Kagome ascended the stairs and Inuyasha wandered out of view toward the rooms Kagome had explored earlier that day. At first, the duo remained silent, Miroku recognizing that she was lost in thought. It took several minutes to reach the next floor, seeing as the only light they had was a small flashlight the hunter was carrying and every third step was rotten through. Dust and debris, such as insulation that had fallen from the ceiling, cluttered the stairs and disguised holes and weak spots.

"Did you notice anything while taking your photographs?" he asked, leading the way.

"Not really," Kagome said. "There wasn't a whole lot in the outer rooms, and somehow I doubt there would be a body out in the open that no one noticed all these years. Maybe we should find a locked room that no one's been in since this place was abandoned?"

"The only locked room I've found so far was the attic. I was trying to break in when I heard you and Inuyasha on the stairs with Naraku. We couldn't find anything else when we were here this morning, or when we came back here earlier this evening."

"How'd you guys figure out I was still here?" Kagome asked, following him up the third flight of stairs toward the attic door.

"Your car was still out on the road. When we got inside, Naraku attacked us as soon as we tried to go to the basement. We also saw some blood, so we figured something bad had happened."

"You two could be Sherlock and Watson," Kagome joked with a wry grin. "I was on my way out when he pushed me down the stairs."

"Ouch, that's happened to me a few times," Miroku commiserated merrily. They arrived at the attic door, a huge, looming slab of wood that seemed much less rotten than the rest of the house. It had a large iron padlock on the outside. He took a pouch out of his back pocket and unrolled it, revealing a set of small tools. Instead of going for the padlock, he started prying the hinges loose.

"So, uh," Kagome began meekly, leaning against the wall and facing the stairs, pretending to keep watch for a rematerialized Naraku. "What's up with Inuyasha?"

"You mean his attitude problem? Don't worry, he's a lot nicer when you—Wait, that's a lie. He's not nicer when you get to know him, but you do realize that being gruff and a little rude is just how he is. Despite my vast knowledge, I never seem to understand him. It's rather difficult having him as a best friend," Miroku explained, prizing a screw loose and beginning to work on the next one.

"No, I meant the… the ears."

"Ah," he said, and his hands stilled momentarily. Only a beat later and without looking at Kagome, Miroku continued working. "He's a half-demon."

"But he's still, like, alive? I mean, not like Naraku?"

"Right."

"Evil?"

Miroku chuckled. "Only when he wants to be. He's also half _human_, meaning he has emotions and everything. Being part demon just makes him a better hunter when it comes to killing the bad guys. Don't worry; he's definitely on our side." There was a jingle, and Miroku made quick work of pulling out the middle hinge. With deft movements, he began on the third and final one, and when that was done the man was able to yank the door open with a little effort, creating a small gap.

"I don't think you'll be able to fit through there," Kagome pointed out after studying the narrow opening.

"The padlock's completely rusted shut, and I couldn't break it earlier. This is our best bet to get into the attic."

"How about I go in and you tell me what to look for?" Kagome suggested, already wiggling through the gap. She ignored it when her wool coat caught on a nail and snagged—the thing was already stained with blood and dirt anyway.

Her last glimpse of Miroku was of him looking very solemn. "Fine, but be careful. Describe what you see once you get inside, okay? Hopefully it'll be obvious, like a coffin or something sitting out in the open."

"What do I do when I find the body?"

Miroku put his face up against the opening since the thick door muffled their voices. "You'll have to burn it. I've got a little bit of gasoline in a flask and some matches."

"The work you guys do is very gross," he heard her mutter, not very quietly. "Okay, I think I found something. There's this huge chest. It's not long enough for a body, but it's really pretty and expensive looking. Maybe his body's all folded up inside?"

"Can you open it?"

"Nope, it's locked. Can I set it on fire anyway?"

Miroku paused, deciding that Kagome might be as destructive as Inuyasha. "I guess so. Maybe we'll get lucky, and you really did find it. Look around some more first, just in case. I'm not sure I have enough supplies on me to burn more than one thing."

He watched through the narrow gap, noticing Kagome crossing back and forth several times. There were several muffled thumps, and then a blood-curdling scream when she was out of view. "Kagome? Kagome!"

"Sorry!" she called back, her voice trembling and sounding terrified. "I definitely found the body. There was a loose board, and when I pulled it free—Oh, god, the body fell right out of the hole. This is so gross."

"I'd like to say you get used to it, but you really don't," Miroku told her with a chuckle. When Kagome came back to the door, he handed her the flask of gasoline and the matches. "Burn it quickly. We're lucky Naraku hasn't paid us a visit yet."

"Oh, really?"

Ah. That was definitely not Kagome who said that, Miroku thought with a grimace. Not Inuyasha either.

The hunter jerked away from the door and found himself face-to-face with the spirit. Everything about Naraku looked agitated. The edges of his form were flickering with rage, and his expression was murderous. The air around him actually pulsed with energy.

"Ah, crap. Hurry, Kagome!" Miroku hollered as he pulled a small gun from a holster hidden under his jacket. He shot but missed as the spirit lunged. After a brief struggle, Naraku shoved him off balance, and Miroku fell down the stairs. When he landed with a thud at the bottom, he wasn't moving.

With a flicker, Naraku disappeared before rematerializing in the room with Kagome.

During the fight outside the attic, Kagome had rushed back to the decayed body, which was really just some scraps of clothing and bones now, and was struggling to light a match. Her hands shook so badly that she'd already ripped three matches in half by accident.

"_No_!" Naraku roared, grabbing Kagome by the back of her coat and hurling her to the floor. She skidded several feet, and her throbbing head left her dizzy and her vision blurred.

"Not much of a hunter, are you?" the spirit sneered. "Neither are the other two. Both knocked out so quickly, so easily. I'll feast tonight."

"What is it with you and eating people?" Kagome asked in a quivering voice, her hands scrambling next to her, looking for something to hit Naraku with. If he was solid enough to touch her, then he was solid enough to feel her hit him with a blunt weapon. "You didn't do that when you were alive, did you?"

"Why do you think there were so many deaths in this asylum? I was pursuing very important research that would prove eating a human heart could give you special powers. This is proof that I was right. Ninety years later, and I'm still here."

Finally finding something with her hand, Kagome hurled it at Naraku without looking at what it was. The old, discarded book flew uselessly past the spirit's head, and Kagome belatedly realized that she had terrible aim when lying injured on the floor. "How'd you die?" she asked, hoping to distract him. A look of triumph crossed her face, briefly, when she felt her fingers close around the matches she'd dropped when he had attacked her.

"The patients and staff mutinied," Naraku told her with an expression of disgust twisting his features, making him look even less human. "Locked me in this attic to starve to death. In the end, however, they were proven the fools. I am the only one who was able to hang onto this world."

"Not for long," Kagome threatened, pushing off from the ground and lunging toward the body. She quickly struck a match and dropped it onto the corpse before the flame could blow out. The scraps of fabric and bones flared up in a startling flare of light, a fire that burned almost green, fueled by more than gasoline. Could fire be fueled by evil?

With a howl, Naraku reached for her, but he started to deteriorate before both of their eyes, fizzling into nonexistence from the edges inward. Kagome closed her eyes, feeling her stomach churn.

Then, as though it had all been a bad dream, she blinked her eyes open and found herself alone in the attic. Neither Naraku nor his body was there, leaving nothing behind but the faint smell of smoke.

"Kagome?" she heard someone, Inuyasha maybe, call from the other side of the attic door. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yeah!" she called back shakily, examining herself for any more injuries. Underneath the adrenaline, underneath the fear and panic, she felt a strange sort of exhilaration, a feeling of aliveness she only felt when she'd taken the perfect photograph. "I think I got him."

When she made her way back to the gap and slipped through, she found both Miroku and Inuyasha on the stairs looking a little worse for wear. She wondered, vaguely, how many scars and bruises their clothes hid. Hunting monsters seemed like a tough line of work to her. Kagome also thought that maybe she understood why they did it a little bit better than she had just half an hour earlier.

"You okay?" Inuyasha repeated, actually looking genuinely concerned. He must have found his hat because it was firmly back on his head and once again hiding his demonic ears.

"I think so," Kagome told him with a small smile. "Will you boys walk me to my car?"

"Definitely," Miroku agreed with a sheepish smile. A large bump was already forming on his forehead, visible to Kagome's scrutinizing eye.

"Would you two like to come over for dinner?" Kagome asked as she led the way down the steps, feeling like she'd earned the right to be in the front of the pack. She had, after all, been the one to destroy the spirit. And she was _only_ a photographer. "I have some more questions for you."

Inuyasha groaned. "Haven't you asked enough?"

"Oh, I don't know," Kagome said lightly, imagining Sango's face. Of all the people Kagome had ever met, Sango seemed the most like a badass demon hunter to her. There might be some way the girls could help out with this whole venture. "I think this might be the start of a beautiful friendship." When Kagome looked over her shoulder to smile at the two hunters, she caught Inuyasha's eye. A little fluttery feeling made its way into her stomach again, and she could feel a blush warming her cheeks. "Or something like that."


	2. Devour

Okay, this is officially my new baby. Updates may be slower for this story since I aim to make each chapter a complete "episode" that is just as long as, if not longer than, the first. Suggestions will be warmly received!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Opacity<p>

Devour

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><p>Sango looked torn between wanting to hit Kagome and wanting to burst into tears. Every logical particle of her very being was screaming, <em>This is not a good idea!<em>, but her stubborn roommate had that look on her face. You know, that very recognizable look of complete hardheadedness and absolute refusal to back down. Kagome's lips were set in a stern line, her normally big blue eyes were narrowed and unblinking, and her eyebrows were drawn together in the middle. The petite woman even had her arms folded against her chest and one hip jutted out.

"You can't be serious," Sango repeated herself, her voice sounding both aggravated and disbelieving.

"Sango…" When she said her best friend's name, Kagome's voice even broke—she was pleading for understanding. "I can't go back to the way it was before anymore. Now that I know there are… _things _out there, I can't just pretend that everything's normal. I want to help them."

"Kagome! They're con-artists!" the brunette protested, gesturing wildly at the two men sitting only ten feet away at the studio apartment's rickety table where the girls ate all their meals. "Sure, they may be very attractive and well-built con-artists, but that doesn't mean they're not taking you for a ride."

"Skipping right over the sexual innuendo in there and my crushing desire to respond, 'I don't care if they ride me,'" Kagome countered, an amused smile threatening to appear on her face, which would totally ruin the stubbornness she was going for, "I saw what I saw. There is no way they could have faked all that, and it's not like they're trying to get money or something out of me. It was _my _idea to join them on these… these…"

Here, Kagome stopped and looked to the men for help.

"Hunting expeditions?" the black-haired one, Miroku, suggested with a slightly crooked smile.

"Hunting expeditions," she repeated with an agreeable nod, looking back to Sango; her face was so open and honest that Sango had to struggle to maintain her belief that this was all some kind of elaborate joke.

The two women locked eyes, silently battling it out. Everything seemed so sudden to Sango. Two days earlier, Kagome had returned late at night looking like she'd been in a bar brawl, with two men tagging along behind her. If the brunette was being honest, she would admit that Inuyasha and Miroku were good-looking enough that even the very practical Sango would have brought them home for a hot meal and a nap on the floor. But it had been _two days_, and they were still there. And now Kagome had quit her jobs and packed up her belongings, announcing that she was leaving with them.

"Kagome…" Sango tried again, her voice straining to stay calm. "What about nursing? What about photography?"

"That's the thing," Kagome argued quickly, her face so animated and excited that Sango _almost _appreciated the enjoyment her best friend-slash-roommate was getting out of this. "My training as a nurse means I can help them when they're injured, and we'll be seeing abandoned buildings all over the country. I can continue building my portfolio for urban exploration magazines and websites _and _help save people at the same time!"

Up until that point, both Inuyasha and Miroku had kept their mouths shut. It had seemed like a dream having a safe place to stay for a few days—it had been just as unbelievable for them when Kagome had told them forcefully that morning that she was coming with them when they moved on to the next city. They'd even put up with Sango's suspicious and accusing glares. Unfortunately, Inuyasha couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer.

"Look, I don't like this either," he told Sango in an exhausted voice as he pushed away from the table. When he stood up, he towered over the women. The brunette did not appreciate having to crane her neck to look up at him. "But Kagome's right. This is the sort of thing that you can't exactly turn your back on. Once you know, you know."

"But I know, too," Sango argued hotly, jabbing her finger into his chest. She ignored the small thrill that raced down her spine when she realized just how well-built he was under the shirt he was wearing. Was Miroku just as in shape? "I've seen your hair, and your eyes, and your…"

"I think she's trying to say your ears," Kagome concluded with a giggle. Her eyes flicked up to the top of his head; even though Inuyasha was wearing an old baseball hat, she knew that underneath were two triangles of fur, ones that looked just like dog ears. "You're living, breathing proof of the supernatural."

"And staying here doing nothing doesn't terrify you?" Miroku piped up, looking at the woman with sympathetic eyes.

"Knowing that Kagome is running around fighting evil with virtual strangers is what terrifies me," Sango argued, unable to meet his gaze. She had learned since their first meeting that Miroku's eyes looked at her so directly, it was like he could see beyond whatever mask she put on. It was unsettling.

"So, are you going to try to stop me?" Kagome asked her best friend softly.

For the longest moment, Sango stared down at her feet, a thoughtful frown on her face. She really, _really_ didn't like this. Any of it. "No; it means I'm going with you."

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><p>"How are you doing?" Kagome asked quietly from the backseat, laying her head on Sango's shoulder. The brunette had been tense ever since her declaration that morning, but she seemed to be finally relaxing now that they were on the road.<p>

Thankfully, the two girls had never owned many things, and they were already okay with sharing clothes with one another. All of their belongings were stored away in only three duffle bags in the trunk of Miroku's beat-up SUV.

"I'm fine," Sango said automatically. She then corrected herself by saying, "I'll be fine. I just need to get used to the idea. What did you tell your mother?"

Kagome smiled wryly, flicking her gaze out the window. Space between the buildings was growing, and she knew they would be out of the city soon. "That we needed to see the world. She was glad to know that Kaede let us out of our lease early."

"Your mother is far too understanding," the brunette muttered. Quietly, she wondered whether it was a good or bad thing that her parents were dead—she had no one to explain her actions to, other than her younger brother who was away at college. Kohaku had sounded surprised and maybe even confused, but he'd merely wished her luck on their 'road trip.'

"Mama is one of a kind," Kagome agreed.

In the front seats, Inuyasha was driving while Miroku studied a road atlas. The men had been suspiciously quiet ever since the women had forced their company on them, but Kagome had a feeling that they were actually happy to have people with them. Didn't it get lonely on the road with only each other to talk to? At the same time, the photographer figured the hunters were also worried about her and Sango's safety. They had two more backs to watch now.

"What did you do before this?" Miroku asked suddenly, peering over his headrest at Sango. "I mean, I know that Kagome was a nurse with a secret love for photography. What were you?"

"A waitress," Sango commented, a sour look on her face. "Actually, I was a waitress twice-over—for a diner and at a bar."

"Sango could never decide what to do with her life," Kagome explained, resolutely ignoring the glare on her best friend's face. Hell, the four of them were trapped in an SUV for who knew how long. It seemed like a good idea to get to know each other better. (It didn't really occur to her that this was something she probably should have done before deciding to travel around with a couple of strangers who killed monsters for a living.)

"Maybe I always felt out of place because I was born to do this," Sango joked weakly.

With a smile, Miroku shook his head at the girls. "You never know, that might actually be true."

"How'd you get involved?" Kagome asked, her eyes wide.

"The old fashioned way—revenge," he explained, glancing back down at a map. He gave Inuyasha some directions to the highway before looking back at Kagome, who looked ready to burst with curiosity. "A demon killed the man who raised me. After I killed it, I knew I wanted to hunt down more of them so no one else suffered like I had. I came across Inuyasha, who was having some sort of identity crisis."

"I'm a _half-demon_," Inuyasha griped from the driver's seat, the frown evident in his voice even if no one could see his face. "That would give anyone an identity crisis," he said, scowling. "And I was following in my father's footsteps, just to be clear."

"We joined forces to take out some vampire—and the rest, as they say, is history."

"And it doesn't bother you that he's half demon, half like the thing that made you an orphan," Sango pointed out. She was many things, but shy was not one of them. The brunette had always been very direct and straightforward, while Kagome tended to edge around subjects to avoid hurting people's feelings.

There was a moment of silence as Miroku considered her question, fairly giving it some thought before answering. "No," he said finally. (It may have been Kagome's imagination, but she could have sworn she saw Inuyasha let out a long sigh of relief.) "First of all, he's only half demon. Second of all, just like not all humans are good, not all demons are bad."

"Was your father—or mother—a good demon, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked carefully.

"My father supposedly was," he responded. His voice sounded a little funny, but Kagome couldn't put her finger on why. "He was only around for a few years after I was born. Before my mother sat me down and clearly explained what I was, she used to talk him up all the time—about how regal and fair and _perfect _he was. I think it was supposed to make it easier on me to accept the fact that I was only half human."

"Sounds like a lot to live up to," Kagome commented very quietly, unable to stop herself. When she looked up, she noticed that he was watching her in the rearview mirror. She met his eyes and a beat passed before he finally glanced back at the road. "So!" she said suddenly, her voice a little too loud and her cheeks feeling a little too warm. "Where are we going?"

"Our next planned stop was a hospital about three hours away," Miroku explained, his finger pointing toward something on the map that the women couldn't see from where they were sitting. "Patients have been going missing for almost a month now without explanation. Three dead bodies were reported in the woods just beyond hospital grounds."

"Patients?" Kagome echoed. "So… this is a hospital currently in operation?" To everyone's surprise, she actually sounded disappointed. "I guess I don't need my camera then." Although she had broken her main camera in the asylum two days earlier, she had an old backup at home. It wasn't as expensive or good as the one she'd lost in the struggle with Naraku, but it would do for now.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Inuyasha said in a grouchy and overly sarcastic tone of voice, again looking up to locate her face in the rearview mirror. This time, his gaze did _not _send tingles down her spine. "I didn't realize that when you volunteered for monster hunting that you _only _wanted jobs that take place in creepy, abandoned buildings."

The look Kagome sent him was not pleasant, but at least she seemed properly ashamed of herself.

"Kagome, your addition to our team came at a very opportune time," Miroku interrupted. The excitement in his tone made both girls wary. "Since it's a hospital, and you're a nurse, you can get us in, right?"

"I _was _a nurse," Kagome corrected. "I quit, remember?"

"But you still have an ID badge and the knowledge," Inuyasha pointed out. "You can say you're covering for a sick nurse—We have reports that a lot of the staff are freaked out and calling in sick or outright quitting because of the disappearances."

"And once I get into the hospital under false pretenses," Kagome prodded seriously, looking only a little upset at the idea of pulling a fast one on some fellow nurses, "what do you expect me to do?"

"Research."

Kagome groaned at Miroku and Inuyasha's simultaneous answer. "I didn't like research when I was in nursing school; why would I like it now?"

"Because," Miroku said with a lopsided smile on his face, "it's now research on _monsters_!"

* * *

><p>"Thank you for helping us out at this time, Ms. Higurashi," the elderly doctor with very large, protruding eyes told the young woman in a creaky voice. Everyone else in the hospital was really spooked and jumpy, but this guy seemed totally fine—if a little spacey—to Kagome. "Where are your scrubs?" he asked, looking behind her as if he would find them hanging on the wall behind her.<p>

"Oh, well," Kagome hedged, glancing around at the other nurses. The ones who passed her rose eyebrows primly at her jeans and t-shirt. Thankfully, she'd at least had an extra badge from the hospital she'd worked at sitting in the bottom of her purse. "I didn't want to look out of place and hoped I could borrow a set of _this _hospital's scrubs," she explained finally, mentally patting herself on the back for sounding so believable. Sango would have been proud!

"Ah, yes. I see! I see!" he wheezed.

"Doctor—"

"Call me Totosai," the old man interrupted. He was small and bony, and his doctor's coat looked ridiculous draped over his jutting shoulders.

"Totosai," Kagome began again, pasting a friendly smile on her face. "Once I change into a uniform, I was wondering if I could get a quick tour of the hospital. Starting with the morgue, maybe? I mean," here, Kagome scrambled to find another logical explanation that wouldn't make the doctor suspicious, "we should start from the bottom up, right?"

"Yes, yes," Totosai said vaguely, looking distracted. _This _was the Chief of Medicine?

After Kagome changed into an extra set of pink scrubs, she returned to the hallway, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. Totosai had waited for her, and if possible, he looked even more out of it.

"Come along," he told Kagome, leading her toward the elevator. "To the morgue."

She pattered after him, playing with the hem of her shirt. As they passed hall after hall, Kagome was careful to look around and note anything unusual—Unfortunately, there wasn't anything that caught her eye. "I heard there have been some… incidents lately," she said finally, grasping at straws. Other than the fact that the place seemed deserted and there was an abnormal number of air ducts, she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. "Is that true?"

Totosai glanced at her over his shoulder, tutted, and then jabbed at the 'down' button to call the elevator. "Rumors," he muttered dismissively. His quivery voice quivered more than usual.

"Ah," Kagome mumbled, following him into the elevator. "I could," she started, her words wavering, "I could help. Maybe."

Again, Totosai glanced at her. His bulging eyes appraised her—this petite girl who had appeared at the front desk, asking to help out less than twenty minutes earlier. He had not gotten to be Chief of Medicine for nothing, so he made sure to call and check the hospital listed on her badge to make sure Kagome Higurashi really was a nurse. They told her that she was, but she had also recently quit. It was unusual, but Totosai was desperate for someone to help fill in, even if he wasn't sure what her motive was.

"We found one of our missing patients just after dawn this morning. I will show you his corpse, but you must promise that you have _nerves of steel_, missy," Totosai agreed finally, returning his gaze to the air in front of him. Kagome fidgeted at his side.

"I can handle it," she told him uncertainly.

When they walked into the large morgue, Kagome suppressed the shudder that ran through her body at the wall of cooler doors. Behind each handle was a body.

"Here," the Chief muttered, going straight to a drawer in the middle of the wall. Kagome trotted after him and peered over his shoulder as he slid the body out. The silhouette hidden under the white sheet was weird, but she couldn't figure out why until he drew the sheet back.

Quickly, Kagome clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from saying anything that could take away from her tough-girl image.

The body was nothing more than a pile of bloody bones, the muscle and flesh stripped from them like the man had been some kind of meal.

"Oh," she muttered, disgusted. "That's not normal."

"No, it's really not," Totosai agreed, covering the body back up. "This is the sixth victim this week, the tenth since the disappearances started a month ago. Ten bodies, but twenty-two missing people."

"So there are more like this out there somewhere?"

The Chief shook his head sadly. "Perhaps some are still alive. Unfortunately, no one can find anything. The security cameras and the staff have noticed nothing abnormal. People just go missing. Two or three from locked rooms, even."

"That's disturbing." Kagome shuddered again. "Do you have any ideas, doctor?"

A beat passed as the Chief considered her question, but he eventually shook his head to indicate that no, he didn't have any suggestions. "When you offered to help, you did not mean with the fact that my staff is short on nurses, did you?"

Kagome shook her head. "I'm sorry. Was I that obvious?"

"You need to work on your spying methods," Totosai advised with a gap-toothed smile. "That said, if you can make this stop, I would greatly appreciate it."

"I might need some backup," she warned. "I have some friends waiting outside. Can I bring them in?"

"If you keep quiet, then you can do whatever you want. However, I believe you might find it easier to investigate if you wait until nightfall when only a skeleton crew is running the hospital."

Carefully, Kagome considered this. "Okay," she said finally, in a bargaining kind of voice. "How about this? I let them know that we can begin once the night staff comes in, and until then, I help with the rounds and nursing?"

"Perfect."

Totosai and Kagome shook on it, and they left, chatting amicably. They both missed the fact that a pair of eyes glittered from an air vent set in the morgue's wall.

* * *

><p>"I know I've told you before that abandoned insane asylums were creepy," Sango muttered, walking very close to Kagome's side, "but hospitals at night are equally disturbing."<p>

With a laugh, Miroku promised, "Don't worry, I'll protect you!" It went unsaid, but he wasn't joking.

"Have you ever shot a gun?" Inuyasha asked, offering a revolver to the two girls. To his surprise, Sango took it, easily adjusting her grip to a proper one.

"My brother and I used to go to the shooting range with our dad," Sango explained, cocking the hammer and holding the gun out in front of her, closing one eye to line up the shot with the exit sign off in the distance. "I was pretty good at it."

There were footsteps echoing in the adjacent corridor, so the brunette quickly checked that the safety was on before stashing the gun in the waistband of her jeans. Totosai had promised Kagome that he would spread the word that the four of them would be in the hospital ("I will tell my staff that you are undercover police officers," he suggested knowingly. Kagome wondered if he was one of the rare few who knew that there were monsters out there… and people who hunted them.), but a loaded gun would freak out just about anyone.

"We'll split up into teams and start searching. There has to be a way for the monster to be getting in and out without people noticing," Inuyasha said, sounding very much like the leader. "You girls take the basement and the first floor; Miroku and I will take the other six," he decided.

"Inuyasha," his best friend scolded, glancing between the other hunter and the women. "We can't leave them alone. It sounds like whatever this thing is, it's _eating _people."

Kagome grimaced. "What is it with monsters and eating people? Personally, I'm finding that really gross. I mean, like _really _gross. Do people taste good or something? Please tell me that these things actually roast and season us first."

Chuckling, Sango shook her head in disbelief. "Kagome, I worry about you sometimes."

"Fine, fine," Inuyasha muttered, ignoring Kagome's sidebar on the etiquette of eating people. "Sango with me, Kagome with you," he suggested, pointing to each person as he mentioned them.

"Yes!" Kagome exclaimed while holding up her fist to bump it against Miroku's like she was some cool, hip little thing. He just laughed and shook his head at her. "We've proven that we're a good team in the past, right?"

"Right," he agreed. "Remember, there are actually people here, so shoot carefully and don't scream."

"Even if we're getting roasted like a stuck pig?" Kagome joked.

"Even then," Miroku replied seriously. "This needs to be a quiet job. We don't want to scare anyone here more than necessary."

"Stay close," Inuyasha mumbled to Sango, tilting his head in the direction of the elevator bank just off the lobby. "We'll start at the top and work our way down. This is your first job, so I don't know, try not to get killed, alright?"

There was a heavy silence as the four looked at one another, and the women were struck by the fact that they were in way over their heads. They had, technically, volunteered for it. It didn't help that they were still a group of total strangers, girls versus guys—but Kagome had meant what she'd said; now that she knew there were things out there that needed to be stopped, she couldn't go back to a normal life. She had to help, somehow. And Inuyasha and Miroku had almost seemed _happy _when she decided to join them. It made her heart feel funny when she thought about how lonely, scary, and miserable their lives had to be out on the road without a home, always fighting.

Suddenly, Kagome reached out to Sango and enveloped her best friend in a tight hug, burying her face in the brunette's shoulder.

"Be careful."

"You, too," Sango replied with one last squeeze before pushing Kagome away from her. "Don't do anything stupid."

They split up into their designated teams, and Kagome led Miroku toward the stairwell. Off to the morgue!

Sango followed Inuyasha, scrutinizing his tall, lanky form as he strode ahead of her. She wondered, in that vague sort of way people do when they're avoiding thinking about something else like flesh-eating monsters, if the half-demon had suggested they team up because he didn't want to be alone with Kagome. She'd seen the way the man had been eyeing her friend, like the petite woman was some kind of puzzle he just couldn't figure out.

"So, do you have any theories?" Sango asked, nodding at the two women standing by the nurse's station not too far from the elevators. They looked suspicious, but they nodded in return; one of them even smiled.

"Yeah," the hunter mumbled, punching the button to call the elevator. "I don't know what it is, but I think it's living in the walls."

To her embarrassment, Sango actually jerked her eyes to the walls as if the thing would be _right there _peeking out at her from a peep hole. Naturally, there was nothing unusual about the white walls on either side. "That's kind of creepy."

"Well, this job isn't all sunshine and butterflies."

"You are _the_ most cheerful person ever," Sango pointed out sarcastically. Actually, Kagome was the most upbeat person she had ever met in her life. If that saying about opposites attracting was true, she could totally see a relationship developing between the snarky half-demon and the friendly ex-nurse. Of course, as Kagome's best friend, she would have to advise against that. "Doesn't it freak you out that we're hunting something that could pop out of the wall at any second?"

Inuyasha shook his head, his eyes following the numbers as they lit up according to where the elevator was. "Not really. Nothing surprises me anymore."

"Nothing?" Sango echoed with a smug smile. "Not even a pretty black-haired girl who risked her life to save you and your buddy in an insane asylum?"

Okay, he had to give her that one.

He just grunted, but Sango knew she'd pushed a button. It must be driving him crazy trying to figure out what was going on inside Kagome's head. The two women had been friends for years, and the brunette was still surprised on a weekly basis at the depth of Kagome's compassion and curiosity.

"Do you regret agreeing to let us join you?" Sango pressed, watching his profile carefully. Their ride finally arrived, and the two boarded the elevator.

"At the moment? No. But as soon as one of you gets hurt…"

For a moment, Sango was quiet. "Would you blame yourself?" she asked finally, thoughtfully.

"Maybe. Miroku would for sure," Inuyasha grumbled, crossing his arms against his chest and leaning against the wall as they moved toward the top floor. The children's ward, if he remembered the directory right. "He's that kind of person, you know, the kind who expects everything to go according to plan, and when it doesn't—which, of course, happens every single time—he thinks it's his fault."

"Sounds like a good man to me," she replied quietly.

When Inuyasha opened his mouth to reply, he was cut off as the lights suddenly clicked off and the elevator jerked to a stop. He stumbled and reached out to grab Sango's elbow, steadying her. After several very long seconds, there was a whirring sound from deep within the hospital—the generator had kicked on. The lights flickered back on, but they were very dim and a reddish color. The two shared a concerned look before Inuyasha started to search the elevator for a way out.

They were trapped.

Four (and a half) floors below them, in the basement, Kagome pried her arms off of Miroku. To her undying shame, she had actually screamed (a very quick, high-pitched scream) when the power had gone out. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and Miroku's attempt to soothe her by patting her on the head like a dog was failing miserably.

"Oh, crap," she murmured, looking around; her fear of the unknown was finally overtaking the excitement and adrenaline rush. The reddish lighting was the result of the backup generator—every hospital had to have one in case a power outage occurred. Any patients on life support would be okay. It made the morgue look extra spooky. Knowing that there was a monster somewhere made everything even worse.

"Hey, everything's going to be fine," Miroku assured her cheerfully, but his confidence had clearly faltered. "Here, have a knife," he suggested, unsheathing an eight-inch combat knife that had been hidden somewhere under his jacket. Kagome marveled at its appearance.

"O-okay," she stuttered, taking it from him. "Should we see if we can figure out why the lights went out? We're already in the basement; maybe we should check the fuse box."

"Marvelous idea," the hunter complimented, tilting his head in the direction of the doorway. "Let's go investigate."

It didn't take an engineering degree for the duo to figure out that the power outage was caused by something _chewing _through all the unprotected cables and wires. Some were still sparking, so Miroku held Kagome back while he examined the situation from the doorway.

"I'm assuming the monster did that," Kagome offered timidly.

"I'm thinking that's a safe bet." Miroku's normally chipper voice was dark. "I hope our partners in crime were off the elevator when this happened."

"It wouldn't crash, would it?" she asked, fearing for them.

"No, but they would be stuck inside. We better go check; they'd be sitting ducks in there."

When the pair surfaced from the basement, they found the hospital in chaos. The bare-bones night staff was checking on patients and trying to assure everyone that the power would be back on soon.

"Shhh," Kagome heard one nurse soothe a little boy with his arm in a sling. "Everything's fine. It's all okay."

"But," he cried, scrubbing at his tear-stained cheeks with the back of one hand, "I heard something."

Kagome reached out and grabbed Miroku by the wrist, making him pause. When he looked at her questioningly, she nodded toward the boy and his nurse.

"What did you hear?" the nurse asked patiently, crouched down and rubbing his tiny shoulder.

"I don't know," he mumbled, sniffling. "There was a slithering noise, like a snake or somethin', in the wall behind my bed."

Miroku sent Kagome a meaningful look, and they took off at a faster clip toward the elevator. At the first floor doors, Kagome pressed her ear against the cold metal and listened intently. She thought that she could hear voices echoing down the elevator shaft, but she wasn't sure.

"Anything?"

Kagome shook her head. "I don't think so, but they could be further up. Maybe we should try the next floor?"

"Let's head straight to the children's ward," Miroku suggested instead, pulling a beat-up cellphone from his back pocket. "I'll just try calling Inu—"

"No cell phones in the hospital," an agitated nurse snapped as she passed by, plucking the cellphone from Miroku's hand and scurrying away with it. The two looked after her with twin looks of disbelief on their faces. Did she just—?

"I guess that decides it," Kagome said faintly, jerking her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the stairwell. She wasn't looking forward to the climb since the generator did not power any lights in there. It was pitch black and even coming up from the basement had put her nerves on edge. "To pediatrics!"

The stairwell was empty, but at least no one saw them huffing and puffing after hoofing it up several flights of stairs. At the top, Miroku poked his head through first, noticing that the top floor was even more deserted than the other floors. The disappearances must have really affected people's willingness to check in at that hospital. There was a clatter that made Kagome jump out of her skin, and a young nurse ran by—the red light distorting her shadow on the wall eerily—and she was soon out of sight.

A shriek drew their attention.

Miroku lept out of the stairwell, Kagome close on his heels, and rounded the corner to find the nurse they had just seen sprawled on the ground. Blood was pooling underneath her body, and it looked like it was pouring from her side. Her pink scrubs were quickly stained red. While Kagome crouched down to check if she was breathing (she wasn't), Miroku scoured the walls for any sign of the monster. A scraping sound overhead drew his gaze up.

"What is it?" Kagome asked, struggling to keep her voice steady as she reached out and closed the nurse's eyes. They were wide open and staring, but already glassy.

The hunter took a step forward and reached up to grab the edge of a swinging ventilation screen. It was dangling, attached to the wall by a single screw, and left the air duct open. The yawning space was two by three feet wide—big enough for a body to fit through. A bloody hand print was on the wall next to it.

"I think I know how it's getting around the hospital unseen," he muttered, eyeing the space critically. It was higher up on the wall, above his head. He wouldn't be able to reach it or look inside without something to stand on.

A skittering noise echoed from inside the ductwork, and Kagome jumped away from the wall when she heard something behind the plaster. "Oh, my god," she hissed, coming to stand next to Miroku. They took several steps back, peering at the wall like something might break through at any second. Once they were far enough away, backed almost to the opposite wall, Kagome noticed movement in the darkness.

Then, a pair of glittering eyes appeared, watching them.

Without a moment of hesitation, Miroku pulled a gun from a holster hidden under his jacket and shot toward the eyes. Even though the gun went off right next to her head, Kagome didn't hear the expected _bang_. She figured the long cylinder attached to the front of it was a silencer or something, although she'd never seen one before to confirm that suspicion.

There was a wet thud, and the eyes blinked out. Kagome took a shuddering breath, but it felt like she couldn't fill her lungs fast enough.

"What _is _it?" she gasped, realizing that she'd grabbed hold of Miroku's arm in a strangling grip again. One by one, she pried her fingers loose.

"Don't know," the dark-haired man muttered, dropping his aim to the ground but keeping the gun out. "I think we should find Inuyasha and Sango, though," he said, glancing around the vast hallway.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

They backtracked to that floor's elevator, and again Kagome put her ear to the closed, cold metal doors. She closed her eyes, straining to hear anything—there were definitely voices, but they still sounded far away.

"I think they're below us," Kagome decided, pulling away to look Miroku full in the face. She didn't like how worried he looked. "I think they're also between floors. Can we get them out without the power on?"

"We'll have to try. Back to the stairs."

Kagome groaned.

For the third time, now on the fourth floor, Kagome listened to the elevator shaft and concluded that Inuyasha and Sango must be dangling halfway between that floor and the floor below. She rapped her knuckles against the door. "Hello?" she called, placing her mouth next to the small gap in the middle of the doors where they folded together when sliding open.

"Kagome?" It was muffled, but she definitely recognized Sango's voice.

"Yeah, it's me!" she shouted. "We're going to try to get you out, okay?"

Someone tapped Kagome on the shoulder then, and she spun around on her heel with a squeak. Thankfully, it was only Miroku. In his hand was a crowbar. "Found this at the nurse's station," he explained cheerfully, shooing her away from the doors.

He had to put his entire weight into it, but he finally managed to prize the doors open with a grating metal-on-metal sound. There was about two feet of open space, and Kagome could just barely make out the tops of Sango and Inuyasha's heads through the open hatch in the top of the elevator. Kagome guessed that they had been in the process of trying to climb out the top when she and Miroku had finally found them.

"Need a hand?" she joked, getting to her hands and knees and leaning through.

Inuyasha got to one knee and locked his hands together, nodding at Sango. The brunette put her foot on top of his interlaced fingers, and he lifted her upward until she managed to grab the edge of the hatch. After the brunette had hauled herself out and found her balance standing on top of the stationary elevator, Sango grabbed Kagome's hand. Working together, the girls managed to get her through the gap while Miroku kept the door open with the crowbar.

"Hurry," he mumbled, his voice strained. His forehead was dotted with sweat, and his face was turning red.

Quickly, Kagome and Sango both reached their hands into the gap. Inuyasha launched himself through the open hatch with a lot more power and grace than the humans could have managed and, even though he probably could have done it himself, grabbed their hands, and they pulled backward as hard as they could, trying to use their own bodies as leverage to get him high enough to climb through the narrow opening. To help, Inuyasha put his booted feet to the wall and tried to counter his weight by pushing himself up.

Just as he wiggled through the gap, Miroku lost his grip on the crowbar, and the doors slid shut with a screech. It took several minutes for them to all catch their breath. Except Inuyasha, who, as a half-demon, wasn't anywhere close to winded but still looked like he was suffering from strained nerves.

"It's in the walls," Inuyasha announced when it appeared the three humans had gotten control of themselves.

"We could hear it in the elevator shaft, trying to find a way in," Sango explained, getting to her feet and helping Kagome up from where she was lying on the ground, looking exhausted. "Did we hear someone scream?"

"A nurse," Miroku confirmed grimly. "She's dead."

"It's getting around in the air ducts," Kagome told the other two. "And it has to have hands and fingers, because it's been screwing all the screens back into place. If it hasn't been, then someone would have noticed, right?"

"Right," Inuyasha agreed, grinning at her. (He looked good when he grinned, plus it seemed almost like he was proud of her for coming to that conclusion, so naturally her heart skipped a beat.) "Glad to see you're still alive," he said, almost-but-not-quite teasingly.

"Where is everyone?" Sango asked, realizing that the hallway they were in was abandoned.

"Totosai wasn't joking when he said this was a skeleton crew. Except for the lobby downstairs, we've barely seen anyone." Kagome ran a hand through her bangs, realizing that her hair was falling out of its ponytail. Her heart was pounding, her hands were sweaty, and every little noise made her jump, but she realized that she felt excited. A good kind of excited, even. "Now what?"

The men shared a look, communicating something silently that Kagome and Sango could only guess. For all they knew, the hunters had come across something like this before—but to the girls, it was an entirely new experience. Something living in the walls, devouring people. Hunting the supernatural in such a natural setting, surrounded by normal human beings.

"We need to draw it out," Inuyasha said finally, peering at his shoes instead of into anyone's eyes. He wasn't saying something.

With a start, Kagome realized what he was getting at. "You mean you need bait," she clarified, her eyebrows drawn together in the middle of her forehead in a stubborn frown.

"We need bait," Miroku agreed, looking apologetic.

"I'll do it," Sango volunteered immediately, reaching out to hold Kagome's hand. They interlaced their fingers together and squeezed, silently giving each other support.

However, Kagome shook her head firmly. "You know how to shoot a gun better than I do. I'd be more convincing bait, and I'd rather know you were out there with them watching my back."

The two women had a silent battle of wills, fighting it out with their eyes, but in the end Kagome won. (As she often did.) Sango retracted her hand from Kagome's and folded her arms petulantly across her chest.

"Fine, but you better not die," the brunette snapped, but the others could see the concern hidden by the spark in her eyes.

"I promise I won't," Kagome said in a soft voice, even though she knew she could promise no such thing.

The four put their heads together and hashed out a plan. Every time a nurse or a patient ran by, they were both relieved and spooked to remember that they weren't alone in the big hospital. Still, the generator was the only source of power, so everything glowed red with the dim emergency lights. It couldn't be too much longer before an electrician, and possibly the fire department, was out there poking around.

"Still have the knife?" Miroku asked Kagome.

She nodded affirmatively and reached down, pulling the blade out from where she'd wedged it between knee-high boots and her pink nurse's scrubs. When Totosai had given her the hospital's uniform to wear earlier, there hadn't been any extra shoes, so she'd been stuck with her boots. Honestly, she looked a little ridiculous, but no one had said anything.

Sango pulled her in for a fierce hug before letting go, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Don't do anything reckless," she ordered her best friend sternly.

"Of course not. I'm always the picture of practicality," Kagome joked weakly. "Really, I've got you guys, right? Plus, don't forget, I totally kicked Naraku's ass."

"That is kind of true," Inuyasha admitted grudgingly. No one mentioned that he hadn't been around during the final confrontation because the evil spirit had knocked him out cold. "Monsters aren't spirits, though, so don't expect this to be the same thing."

"Yeah, yeah," Kagome said dismissively. She still sounded nervous. "I'm counting on you," she reminded the other three, looking each one in the eye. Quickly, Kagome reached out and grabbed Sango's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly before stepping forward to kiss each man on the cheek. Inuyasha even reached up and placed his fingertips on the spot she had kissed, as though he needed to confirm her lips had just been there.

"Good luck." Miroku winked.

Without another word, Kagome turned around and walked toward the stairwell by herself. The others would follow later, but for now, she needed to prove to the monster that she was separated from everyone else. In the dark, she carefully felt her way up three flights of stairs and entered the top floor by herself. The first place she went was where she and Miroku had left the dead nurse's body.

It was gone.

Her stomach twisting into knots, Kagome examined the ground and started to follow the smear of blood along the white tile. She stepped very softly, but the heels of her boots echoed around her in the abandoned hallway. Along the wall, since it was the children's ward, were paintings. In the light, they were probably fun and reassuring, but in the creepy red glow of the emergency lights, the painted expressions on the clowns and doctors and children looked distorted and murderous. Kagome gulped.

The blood trail went past several closed doors. Kagome could hear movement behind some of them, even some whimpering, but she figured it was just children afraid to come out during the power outage. Finally, the blood took a turn to the right and disappeared under the closed door of the floor's break room.

Steeling her nerves, Kagome reached forward and slowly turned the doorknob with one hand. In the other, she clutched the combat knife but hid it behind her back. The door swung open, revealing a shadowy room full of tables and chairs and—

In the far corner was a hunched figure; wet chewing noises could be heard. Kagome took a step into the room, and the figure suddenly stilled. When it turned its face toward Kagome, she had to struggle not to gasp or scream. A pale face with long, dark, stringy hair and pointed teeth dripping with blood. The thing was eating the dead nurse. Already, Kagome could barely recognize the corpse as a human's.

The monster had the head and the torso of a woman—a naked woman, Kagome was startled to realize—but there were more than two arms. Each hand clasped a wet looking lump that Kagome was too afraid to look at closer, figuring it was probably pieces of the nurse. Below the feminine waist stretched a long body, almost like a snake, but lined with spidery-looking legs. The tail, or whatever it was, twined around all the tables in the room.

"Oh, my god." Kagome couldn't help herself, and she realized with a start that it was her that was speaking. The realization of what she was looking at kicked her brain into high gear. "You're a _centipede_."

To her abject horror, the monster actually started laughing.

"My friends call me Mistress Centipede," the thing said in a voice that sent chills down Kagome's spine. It was a woman's voice, but angry and hoarse and more than a little demented. "My meals don't get much of a chance to call me anything."

Instincts kicked in, and Kagome whirled around. She took off back down the hall the way she had come, her heart racing. Behind her, she heard a clatter as the monster knocked over several chairs while in hot pursuit.

"Crap, crap, crap," she shouted, rounding a corner too fast. Her momentum threw her into a wall, bruising her shoulder. Scrambling to regain her balance, she kept running, hoping she'd given the others enough time to come up the stairs after her.

"Come back," the thing called after her, its voice almost singing in its excitement. It sounded thrilled. "I haven't had to chase a meal in a long time."

Naturally, of course, Kagome tripped.

The ex-nurse fell to her knees with an impact that rattled her teeth, and she quickly rolled to the side just in time for the monster to miss when it lunged. The tail or body segments or whatever and its many legs whipped past her as the thing skittered several feet away, sliding across the tile. Swallowing back the bile that had risen in her throat, Kagome plunged Miroku's knife into the arm closest to her, and a thick, black liquid squirted out.

"You bitch!" the creature roared, making another dive for the girl.

When it got close, Kagome noticed with a lurch just how long its fangs were—long enough that they could easily go through one side of her neck and out the other. With a scream, she rolled to the side again, feeling the air rush by her cheek as the monster narrowly missed hitting her.

"This was a really bad idea," Kagome gasped, crawling away on her hands and knees. The material of her scrubs made her slide across the floor, and the blood trail plus the gunk pouring out of the thing's wound made it even more slippery. "Oh, man," she hissed, feeling another gust of wind as the monster made another pass at her.

"Hey, ugly!" someone shouted.

Both the centipede and Kagome looked up in time to see Sango brace herself down the hall, feet spread shoulder-width apart and her arms held up, aiming the revolver in front of her. "Eat this!" the woman snapped, pulling the trigger three times as rapidly as the gun would allow. The bullets slammed into Mistress Centipede's torso, and even more of the ghoulish blood pumped out.

Finally, Miroku and Inuyasha appeared behind Sango, and Inuyasha lifted the shotgun that Kagome vaguely remembered from their Naraku adventure. As the creature swayed back and forth, held up in the air by its long tail and many legs, the hunter ran down the hall to get closer. He pumped the shotgun once before leveling it—in a very macho sort of way, he only used one hand—and took a shot, and one of the human-looking arms on the torso blew off. Blood splattered the wall behind the monster, along with the buckshot that had missed the target. Inuyasha pumped the shotgun again and aimed more carefully.

This time, he took off the head.

The creature's body collapsed, and Kagome barely managed to dodge before she was crushed. With a squeal, she jumped over a tangle of tail and ran into Inuyasha's arms, mostly because he was closest, but also, maybe, because she decided it was a good excuse. Almost as if it were an instinct, his arms wrapped around her protectively.

"Next time, you can be bait," she told Sango resolutely. "That thing was _disgusting_."

A slow clapping startled all of them, and when they turned around, they found Totosai, the bug-eyed Chief of Medicine, standing in the stairwell doorway.

"Well now, it seems you've left me quite a mess to clean up!" he exclaimed, surveying the massive corpse. A second later, there was a resounding clicking noise from somewhere deep below them, and all the lights flickered to life. "Ah, there they are. They hooked up a larger generator to help power the hospital until the wiring can be fixed," he explained.

Under his unblinking gaze, Kagome realized she was still clinging to Inuyasha. Quickly, she unclenched her arms from around his waist and stepped back.

"How are you going to explain how the power went out?" Miroku asked curiously.

"Rats," Totosai clarified sagely. He nodded his head. "I think I'm going to blame all of this on rats."

Before anyone could say anything else, there was a sizzling noise. Kagome spun around, noticing that the centipede's body appeared to be…

Melting?

"Disgusting," she repeated with a haughty sniff. "I'm so done with this one."

The ex-nurse marched toward Sango and grabbed the brunette's hand. Together, the two women went into the stairwell, leaving the rest of the cleanup to the boys.


	3. Ignite

For people worried about the fact that Naraku's already dead and gone… I have a few tricks up my sleeve for this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Ignite

* * *

><p>The breaking point for Kagome was when a cockroach scurried across her<em> face<em> while she was taking a nap. Feeling the hairy little legs scratch over her cheek woke her up immediately, and she batted at it before her eyes were even open. When she bolted upright in bed, the thing fell to the ground, landed on its back, squirmed around until it righted itself, and then finally darted away.

Kagome screamed.

From where he was asleep with his back to the wall, Inuyasha lurched forward. He blinked drowsily and aimed his ever-at-hand shotgun in front of himself, ready to blast whatever it was. After seeing the tiny cockroach, the half-demon gave the girl the dirtiest look he could muster.

"…Really?" he asked dryly, his thick eyebrows lifted in bafflement.

As if she could still feel it on her, Kagome wiggled around, clawing at her hair and her arms. "That is _it_; we are staying in a nice hotel from now on. Or a car. The freaking SUV would be better than this!"

"Oi, princess!" Inuyasha snapped, pushing himself to his feet. He brushed any dirt off his clothing and then proffered his hand. Kagome reluctantly slipped her fingers into his grip, and he yanked her out of the bed and onto her feet. Even though he'd promised not to look while she was changing, she'd insisted on wearing her jeans and a t-shirt to nap in anyway. "How is it that someone who crawled around abandoned, decaying buildings has a problem with a not-abandoned, perfectly _fine_ motel?"

With a haughty sniff, Kagome looked away from the hunter. "Those places didn't have a cockroach problem."

"You need to get over your bug issues," he warned her. It was then that he realized they were still alone in the room—Sango and Miroku hadn't returned from their scouting trip around the small town yet. "What's keeping them?" he asked in a vague voice that Kagome took to mean that he was talking to himself, not her.

Fussily, Kagome straightened her mussed clothes. She tried fruitlessly to ignore it when Inuyasha turned to stare at the way her t-shirt stretched taut across her chest; thankfully, finally, she got the fabric to fall in a much more modest way. Unfortunately—or fortunately—the half-demon was still eyeing her body appreciatively.

To get his attention, Kagome snapped her fingers in front of his nose.

"How long have they been gone?" she asked with a voice still cottony from sleep. She yawned into her hand and stretched—which, naturally, pulled the hem of her shirt above her bellybutton, once again drawing his very _male _attention to her. "How long was I asleep?"

"Uh… Five hours," he told her breasts.

Okay, so secretly, Kagome was kind of enjoying the attention of the tall, well-built, gruff monster hunter, but she wasn't about to let him in on that little secret. "I'm up here," she reminded him very seriously, crossing her arms over her chest to hide the view.

"I know that," he snapped quickly, meeting her eyes; she was amused to find the barest hint of a blush on his cheeks. "Oh, give me a break. At least I didn't peep on you in the shower last night," Inuyasha pointed out like a complete smartass.

"Wait—Miroku did _what_?"

"I said nothing about Miroku," Inuyasha said loyally, but he immediately smirked in that arrogant sort of way that Kagome was finding increasingly attractive and aggravating. "But you should seriously lock the door."

"I _did_ lock the door!" Kagome announced with a gasp, remembering quite clearly twisting the bathroom's lock. Sure, she liked Inuyasha and Miroku, and the idea that they were backing her up when she was hunting monsters was what gave her to courage to do it in the first place—but they were still practically strangers, and she was still a young woman with good morals.

"Next time, lock the door by shoving a chair under the handle," Inuyasha suggested, rubbing the back of his head with his hand as if he was a little ashamed of his best friend. "Miroku's great at picking locks."

"Pigs!" she accused right as the motel door swung open and their friends returned.

"What did you do now, Inuyasha?" Miroku demanded, holding the door open to let Sango through. The way he was standing, with his back rather than his hand keeping it in place, forced the brunette to brush past him as she entered the motel. Sango seemed oblivious to the physical contact, but now that Kagome was beginning to see how perverted Miroku really was under his cool, collected, charming exterior, she noticed the way his eyes swept her best friend's body.

"Me?" the half-demon sputtered. "You!"

"_Both_ of you," Kagome clarified hotly, ignoring the way Sango was eyeing all three of them with confusion. "You guys have clearly been out of the company of ladies for way too long."

"Ladies?"

Kagome did not appreciate Inuyasha's amused tone when he echoed the word. "Ladies," she repeated sternly. "And don't you forget it."

Miroku decided to interrupt the sudden glaring contest between the two and stepped between them, holding his hands up in a placating fashion. "Save it for later; let's talk about this town."

"Oh, right. What did you guys find out?" Kagome asked as she perched on the edge of the musty, single bed. Sango collapsed next to her, quickly unlacing her boots and yanking them off with a pained expression.

"A whole lot of nothing," the brunette grumbled angrily. She rubbed wearily at her eyes, and Kagome patted her best friend's back soothingly. Ever since they joined the men six days earlier—probably because their first big monster battle with the centipede was the same night they left home—they'd been short on sleep.

"Not true." Miroku shook his head and leaned against the wall, running his hand through his hair. His fingers caught the hair tie, so he pulled it out, letting the shaggy locks loose. That, plus the stubble collecting on his jaw, made him look out of control and more than a little appealing—Kagome decided to tease Sango about it later when she saw the way the brunette was ogling the man. "It sounded like a lot of nonsense, but I think there were some good clues in there. All the 'witnesses' that we talked to didn't actually _see_ anything, but they all mentioned the same three things."

"A little girl's voice, music, and a strong gust of wind," Sango murmured, realizing that hidden in all the terrified accounts of the people they'd talked to, there had been some common threads. She'd been too distracted by their stupid comments about UFOs and murderous clowns and dragons to notice before.

Yes, that's right, one person blamed _clowns_.

"How can you guys be sure that all these fires are supernatural and not natural?" Kagome asked, peering around at everyone. Of course Sango shrugged, as clueless as she was, but Miroku and Inuyasha shared a look that suggested they were having one of those serious, demon hunter, telepathic conversations that flew right over Kagome's head.

"Well, we kind of don't," Miroku admitted finally.

Kagome's jaw dropped in surprise.

"There's not really an exact science," he struggled to explain, again running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Half the time, we kind of stumble across the supernatural. Other than an extremely psychotic arsonist that the police can't find any evidence of, eighteen fires that have killed six people in less than three weeks normally means a belligerent spirit or something."

"Plus, Sesshoumaru suggested we come here," Inuyasha tacked on, frowning.

"Sesshoumaru? Who's Sesshoumaru?" Sango questioned. It was the first time this name had come up.

Inuyasha winced. "My brother. My _half_-brother. He kind of… owns this part of the country. Demonically speaking. Sometimes, if there are problems, he sends me and Miroku after them to help keep the peace."

"Wait," Kagome interrupted, waving her hands around in front of her to stop all conversation as she chewed this over. She didn't understand. Really, how could she? In only a little over a week, she'd learned that the supernatural existed, killed a ghoul, quit her daytime job, killed a giant centipede monster thingy, and now she learned that a demonic lord or something owned part of the country and sicced his brother and his brother's human friend on supernatural baddies to 'keep the peace'?

Whoa.

"Mostly we're freelance, and we just travel the country taking out monsters and demons and ghouls on our own, but sometimes Sesshoumaru calls in a favor," Miroku explained. "Actually, it's been happening more and more lately."

"This is complicated," Kagome protested.

"No, it's not," Inuyasha argued, crossing his arms. It was a difficult action considering he was still holding a massive shotgun in one hand. "Miroku and I kill evil things. My older half-brother will send us or other hunters after evil things if he hears about them and does not have the time to take care of them himself. How is this complicated?"

"Kagome has a natural affinity for happy things," Sango told them while trying to repress a smile. "Unhappy things confuse her."

Kagome promptly socked her hard in the shoulder. "Hey!"

"Well, it's true!" the brunette defended herself, rubbing her sore arm and glaring at her best friend. "And it's really not that hard to figure out. What kind of a man is Sesshoumaru?"

"Never met him," Miroku said honestly just as Inuyasha growled, "The asshole kind!"

"Okay. Back to the mysterious fires that have been plaguing this town," Kagome insisted. "What do you guys think is causing them?"

Inuyasha and Miroku shared another hunter look. Then they both shrugged.

The girls shook their head in disbelief. How had these two ever survived before they came along? Did the men just wander around, waiting for things to be obvious, and then kill them once they were? That might explain why Naraku lived—well, _existed_—long enough to kidnap and try to eat Kagome before the men came after him.

"Let's try this from the beginning," Sango suggested patiently. Her voice was still tired, but she tried to infuse it with some enthusiasm. "When did the fires start?"

"Three weeks ago, but there was another fire three weeks earlier that we're not sure is related," Kagome answered promptly. She knew that much thanks to the newspaper articles Miroku had found at a diner the next town over.

"I say we investigate the first fire. If we focus on that one instead of looking at all of them at once, maybe we'll get a clue about what started all this," the brunette said looking around at the other three for their opinions.

"I disagree. Respectfully, of course," Miroku argued, ignoring the glare the woman sent his way. "I vote we look at all the fires and find a common thread."

The two adults locked eyes, and Kagome could practically feel the tension in the air. Personally, she thought maybe there was more than just a little anger fueling the heated look (Miroku was, after all, an attractive, intelligent man; who could blame Sango?), but it wasn't her place to say anything about it. …Who was she kidding? Kagome would mercilessly tease her best friend, but it would have to wait until later. For now, she needed to calm them down.

"How about we split up?" Kagome suggested in a perky voice meant to remind everyone that they were all friends… or close enough.

"Yeah, that, uh, that sounds like a good idea," Inuyasha agreed, looking back and forth between Miroku and Sango before letting his eyes turn to Kagome. They nodded at one another, and Kagome realized he'd been thinking the same thing as her. (Oh, look, they could also do telepathic communication!) Maybe something had happened while the other two were out scouting the town earlier? Like a moment—a _romantic _moment. "Miroku and I will go around and talk to survivors, and you two can hit up the library."

Kagome groaned. "Why do we have to do research at the library?"

"Because we're the ones with fake police badges," Inuyasha explained, pulling out a stack of ID cards from inside his heavy-duty coat's pocket and sorting through them until he found a detective's badge. "See?"

After a moment of digging, Miroku brought out his own, and the two men held up their identification cards and badges for the girls to inspect.

"Well, that's just ridiculous. You two look more like construction workers than detectives," Kagome pointed out, indicating the stubble on their jaws and unkempt clothing with a wave of her hand.

"Which is why you two need to get out of here, so we can clean ourselves up," Miroku told them patiently.

With a sigh, Sango pulled her boots back on and laced them up, looking like she was ready to crash. Maybe they could take naps in the library? "Alright, let's go, Kagome. The con-artists have more conning to do."

"For the good of mankind!" Inuyasha called after her in an angry voice; the women ignored him and walked out of the motel.

The two best friends strolled side-by-side for a long time, each lost in thought. Kagome tucked her hands into the pockets of her jacket, noticing how cold it was getting. She remembered getting dressed a week earlier in a sweater for her trip to the insane asylum where she first met the hunters—then she remembered how she'd thrown the sweater away afterwards, since it was torn, dirty, and even bloody. Plus, it smelled kind of like smoke from setting Naraku's corpse on fire. Was that really less than two weeks ago?

"How are you holding up?" Kagome asked her best friend, peeking to the side and noticing that the slightly taller woman also looked deep in thought.

"Fine," Sango answered honestly. "This is all so surreal. I mean, I don't know if it's really dawned on me yet that we just packed up and left with a couple of guys to kill monsters."

"Yeah, sometimes it hits me just how weird this all is. I'm glad you came with me, though." A beat passed as Kagome studied their surroundings, noting that the small town seemed very peaceful; too bad there was some kind of terrifying thing killing people by setting houses on fire. "I just… I thought it meant something, you know? That I got involved for a reason, like it was fate for me to find out about the supernatural, so I could help do something about it. Plus, thinking about being a nurse forever and _hoping _that someday a magazine might run some of my pictures—after destroying Naraku, that just seemed so boring."

"I'm sure it doesn't hurt that those two men back there are _obnoxiously_ attractive."

Kagome blushed, but didn't deny it.

"Well, where you go, I go," Sango promised with a wide smile that lit up her whole face. She swung an arm around her best friend for a quick hug. "We're kind of a package deal."

"Speaking of going places, do you have any idea where the library is?" Kagome asked with a laugh, shoving the brunette's arm off of her. Really, though, she was glad they were in this together.

"Yeah; Miroku and I passed it when we were tracking down witnesses listed in the newspaper." Pausing in her steps, Sango pointed toward the center of town, next to a church steeple not too far in the distance. "Thank goodness this place is so small that we can walk everywhere."

Picking up the pace, the two women worked their way through a local park. On the other side, through a break in the trees, they stumbled across their goal. It was a small building and probably as old as the town itself. The library was mostly wood and some brick with a little chimney pumping smoke into the air at one end. Kagome took the lead, mounting the steps and walking inside. It was quiet and a little dusty. A librarian smiled at the girls as Sango helped Kagome shove open the massive front door.

"It's kind of cute," Kagome said in a hushed whisper, looking around at the full shelves and leaning stacks of books. Considering they'd come from a large city where they'd been crammed into a studio apartment, Sango could understand where she was coming from. Small town life was endearing to a couple of city girls like them. "Let's ask for newspapers and start researching."

They separated, and Kagome approached the librarian who had greeted them. It didn't take much digging to find the article about the first fire; soon, Kagome had the address of the house. While Sango looked through the miniscule mythology section several aisles away, the blue-eyed girl took a stack of books about the history of the town to a rickety table.

Hours passed as they researched, and Kagome became so intent on the book in front of her (it was talking about the families who had lived in the town for centuries), she didn't even notice the way her hair ruffled. A soft breeze pressed against her neck, sending a chill down her spine, but she ignored it.

She couldn't, however, ignore the way a strong gust of wind tore through the library, turning the pages of her open book and shoving the newspapers to the ground in a whirlwind only a minute later.

"My word!" the old librarian declared, looking around excitedly. All the windows and the front door were closed tight. "What in the world…?"

Very, very softly, there was flute music.

"Kagome!" Sango shouted from somewhere. Her frantic voice caused Kagome to jump to her feet.

"Over here!" Kagome called back, searching for her best friend. The library was small and only a single room, but it was so crowded with old books and shelving units that the girls couldn't see one another from where they stood. Another gust of wind pressed against the back of Kagome's legs, and she stumbled forward a step, bumping into the table. The music seemed closer, but she couldn't pinpoint its origin. "Ma'am, I think it might be a good idea if you—_we_—got out of here," Kagome suggested to the librarian. The old lady's scandalized look did not help her frayed nerves. Something very weird was going on.

"I don't understand," the librarian stuttered, still trying to figure out where the wind was coming from. Her old eyes scanned the walls, but the wind seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

"Yeah, well, me neither," Kagome muttered, grabbing the old lady by the crook of the elbow and pushing her gently toward the front door.

"We've got a problem!" Sango suddenly hollered, rounding a corner with a terrified look on her face. Her booted feet slid across the wood floor in her haste, and she almost skated shoulder-first into a huge bookshelf. Long tendrils of smoke followed her from the back of the library.

Suddenly, Kagome could smell burning books. The acrid stench hit her full in the face, forcing her to realize how much smoke was pumping out from the opposite side of the library; it was like a wave of gray coming for them.

Skidding past Kagome, Sango grabbed a hold of one of her hands and one of the librarian's and tugged them both in the direction of the front door. "Little girl," she gasped, "Giggling—flames—whole books on fire—!"

"Fire?" the old woman squawked, trying to pull out of Sango's grip. "_Fire_! We have to put it out! Where are you going? The books!"

A sudden explosion rocked the building, and all three women stumbled. Kagome reached out and grabbed the librarian, steadying her on her feet. By the time they spun around, flames engulfed the back section of shelves, rushing along the ground and licking the ceiling.

"Must have hit a gas line," Sango suggested faintly, renewing her efforts to herd the others out.

The air was scorching hot, and Kagome felt uncomfortably sticky in her long-sleeved shirt as sweat beaded on the back of her neck. Everything was a little hazy as smoke filled the library—unfortunately, the room was shut up tight, so the smoke had nowhere to go. It just kept getting thicker.

Kagome crouched down where the air was cooler and clearer, taking the lead in the group from Sango who was bent double with a choking cough. By the time they reached the heavy front door, the women could feel the flames on their backs, and they could barely see a foot in front of their noses.

"K-Kagome," Sango gasped in a hoarse voice.

"I know," her best friend wheezed, reaching up for the doorknob and twisting it. When nothing happened, she tried again more desperately. The metal felt warm in hand, already heated by the air around it. It was locked.

Coughing, Sango tensed her body and slammed her shoulder into the door. It barely rattled.

The librarian pressed her cheek to the floor, her breathing labored. "What's happening?" she whispered.

"We're locked in," Kagome explained grimly, throwing her own shoulder into the door. It was thick and heavy, a hundred years old with a weighty brass lock. "I thought only houses were burning down."

"Only houses _were _burning down," Sango retorted. "Now I guess libraries are, too." She met Kagome's eyes, and they recognized the fear on one another's faces. Other than where they were huddled, everything was smoke and fire. Smoldering ash whirled up into the air, turning everything black. The crackling and roar of the flames paled in comparison to the flute music, which now sounded like it was right in Kagome's ear.

Glancing around, she thought she saw movement near the rafters, but it was too hazy to really see anything. A little girl's giggle sent a chill racing down her spine.

"I kind of miss being a waitress right about now," Sango joked weakly, lowering her face as close to the ground as she could. Another cough racked her body.

"Dying of smoke inhalation would be better than burning to death." Unable to stop herself, Kagome thought about treating people with third degree burns in the emergency room—it had turned her stomach, especially the lingering smell of burnt flesh.

"Don't… Don't talk like that," Sango scolded. Her voice was very faint now, almost unrecognizable. Her eyelids looked heavy. Kagome couldn't even tell if the librarian was breathing any more.

The music all she could hear, other than her own muffled heartbeat, Kagome felt her eyes begin to drift shut. Breathing in was hard, and it seared her lungs as if she was breathing fire itself. Everything felt thick, and she could barely—

A sudden _crack_ made her snap her eyes open.

There was a rush of cold, almost freezing air pulling at her, tugging them outward toward the street as the door suddenly disappeared. A vacuum formed as the hot air was sucked out, and it was just as hard, if not harder, to breathe for several long seconds.

Someone grabbed Kagome around the waist, and she found herself dangling over one broad shoulder. On the other side of the person, passed out, was Sango, her face pale and smudged with soot. From her new vantage point, Kagome saw someone else run past and pick up the librarian, princess style, and then run back out to the street.

Like an unglamorous sack of potatoes, Kagome found herself tossed to the grass outside the burning building.

"You okay?" a man asked, his voice oddly muffled and distant, as he pounded her on the back. She realized she was coughing.

"Y-yeah," she gasped, struggling to suck in a lung-full of clean air. "How's Sango? Is she alright?"

"Sango's fine," he promised, his ministrations turning to light pats and then finally soothing circles on her shoulders. "You guys really lucked out."

"Lucked out," Kagome echoed in disbelief. She closed her eyes for a second, and they felt sore and gritty, but at least that reminded her that she was alive. "We were just locked inside a burn—" Quickly, she cut herself off, pulling herself up to her elbows to look more carefully at the formerly-locked door of the library. It was torn off its hinges, crumpled almost in half. "Oh, my god," she mumbled, her eyes wide. What could have—

Her savior sat down next to her in the grass, and Kagome finally had a chance to look at him. It was Inuyasha with his hair stuffed under a baseball hat, which also hid his ears; it looked brand new and had some kind of government logo on it. He was—and it seemed to be the most confusing part of the situation—dressed in a _suit._ Not too far away was Miroku, also suited up, who seemed to be arguing with the authorities. Both men looked barely scathed by the fire, but the librarian was being loaded into an ambulance parked near Miroku.

"If that door was any bigger, it might have taken me too long to break through," Inuyasha grumbled, scratching at his temple at the edge of his hat like it was really irritating him. Did wearing a hat hurt his ears? Kagome wondered. On the other side of him was Sango, who was now awake but staring vacantly up at the sky overhead. "You guys sure you're alright? It'd be better if you didn't go to hospital. The faster we can disappear from here, the better."

The grass brushed against Kagome's cheek as she shook her head. "We should probably get our lungs checked out—there could be lasting damage from smoke inhalation."

"Ah, jeeze," the half-demon growled. Kagome was sure he was holding back from adding some choice words, too, judging by the annoyance on his face. "You sure? Really? You can't just breathe good air and be fine?"

"Sango passed out. We might need to be intubated—an oxygen tube put down our throats," Kagome explained, rolling over onto her back so that her head was pressed into the grass by his knee. He looked down at her, and it seemed like the entire sky was filled with his face. "If our throats swell up, we could die."

"You only sound a little hoarse," he pointed out stubbornly. Not too far away, the roof of the library collapsed, sending up a massive cloud of smoke and ash. People who had gathered on the street took off running, forming a group again on the nearest corner instead to watch the firefighters battle the flames.

"Sango, say something," Kagome ordered, reaching over to prod her best friend in the shoulder.

"S-some…" Sango tried and failed before erupting into more coughing.

"She needs oxygen," Kagome said pointedly, sounding sleepy. "And I need… a nap…"

"Hey, there, stay awake," Inuyasha demanded, roughly shaking her shoulder. It didn't do any good.

She was already asleep.

* * *

><p>When Kagome opened her eyes several hours later, she noticed three things. One, she was clearly in a hospital. Two, she shared the room with another patient who had a visitor just on the other side of the curtain. Finally, three, Inuyasha was asleep in the chair at her bedside.<p>

The half-demon was still in his suit, but it was wrinkled and the tie had been loosened. His hat, the one with the government logo, had started to slip off his head. Afraid that it would reveal his ears or too much of his oddly colored hair, Kagome stretched her arm out and nudged the headwear back into place. She wasn't surprised to see an IV inserted into the back of her hand, but the sight still made her cringe. Although she was a nurse, having a bunch of needles stuck in her was not something she was comfortable with. Thankfully, she was breathing on her own, which meant the damage to her lungs hadn't been severe enough to force the doctors to intubate her.

Sango probably wasn't as lucky.

The brunette would _freak _when she woke up with a tube shoved down her throat.

"Hey," Kagome whispered to the hunter, her voice hoarse on top of being groggy with sleep.

Inuyasha startled awake and rubbed blearily at his eyes. "Morning," he managed to mumble before yawning into his hand. It revealed two small fangs.

Before they could say anything else to one another, a plump nurse bustled into view. She smiled at Kagome as she checked the clipboard attached to the base of the bed.

"You're awake!" she announced cheerfully (and unnecessarily), running her finger down the page before flipping it over to the next. "Very lucky, my dear, very little damage to your lungs. You should be able to go home tonight. Your friend, unfortunately, was not so lucky; she must be intubated for the full twenty-four hours before we can release her."

"You might want to keep her sedated," Kagome croaked with a half-smile. "Sango will not be happy to wake up to that."

The nurse laughed good-naturedly and patted Kagome on the back of the hand, the one without the IV sticking out of it. "And look here, your boyfriend is _still _at your side. You know, he hasn't left this room once since we brought you in!"

Inuyasha looked flustered and even opened his mouth to respond, but Kagome cut him off with a teasing smile.

"My fiancé is one of those guys who gets _really _worried; thanks for letting him stay past visiting hours," she responded as sincerely as possible, sliding a look at the half-demon to tell him silently to keep his mouth shut. Judging by the light slanting in through the window, it was almost evening.

With a chortle, the nurse gave each of the 'couple' a wink. "Anything for young love. Now, I need to get going. I have my rounds to make! I'll be back soon to make sure you get your rest."

As soon as she was out of sight, Inuyasha leaned forward with a growl. "Why'd you go and tell a lie like that?"

"Because if you're not legitimately linked to me in some way, your butt would be booted out of here so fast," Kagome explained, only a little impatiently. "As my fiancé, and apparently as some kind of government official—who are you supposed to be anyway?—we might be able to wrangle a few extra minutes of visiting time."

"Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_," Kagome countered with an eye-roll. "So what did you and Miroku find out?"

Tugging the hat off, Inuyasha ran his hand through his hair before replacing it, aware that anyone seeing his ears would cause a lot of unnecessary drama. He leaned back in the chair and looked around the room, obviously stalling. On the other side of the curtain, a shadow moved—he realized himself that the other patient had a visitor. Keeping his voice low, the hunter explained, "We found something linking all the fire victims. The houses all belonged to single mothers."

"So the six deaths…?"

"All either children or their mothers," he told her in a quiet voice. He actually sounded sad.

"That's awful," Kagome murmured, aware that those words were insufficient to express how terrible it would be to be a survivor of that. "Did you talk to everyone?"

"All but the people from the first fire; there was no one at their new house when we showed up."

"About that," Kagome said, perking up but keeping her voice low so that the others in the room couldn't hear. "At the library, I found some stuff. I was looking through the history of the town and the old families that live here. That pretty much got me nowhere, but I do know about the first victim. It was a mother and two children who lived in the house. It started, because—at least the inspectors think so—someone put something, a scarf or a shirt, on the radiator, and it caught on fire."

"Any deaths?"

"Yeah, a little girl named—"

"_Mayu_."

Both Inuyasha and Kagome jumped at the voice, and they peered around the room with wide eyes. It took them several moments to realize that the person speaking was on the other side of the curtain; it sounded like the speaker was in a lot of emotional pain.

"Mayu," Kagome echoed, immediately clapping a hand over her mouth and looking at Inuyasha in a terrified sort of way that raised his hackles—literally, Kagome could hear him growl low in his throat as his upper lip caught on a fang.

"What is it?" he demanded, his eyes narrowed and sweeping the room for a threat.

"No, that's just it," Kagome explained in a hushed kind of way. "The first victim? Her name was Mayu."

Dumbfounded, Inuyasha relaxed. "Well, that's creepy."

"Tell me about it," she muttered. As quietly as she could, she pulled the covers from her body and swung her legs out. When she got to her feet, she was unsteady, but she leaned against the wall to keep from tumbling over. Inching towards the curtain, Kagome peeked around, missing the half-amused, half-horrified look on her partner's face.

"Kagome," he hissed.

"Shh," she shushed him, trying to get a good look at the people on the other side of the curtain to figure out who they were and why one of them would say the name of the dead little girl. She felt a breeze as Inuyasha must have reached for her shoulder, his hand unable to touch her from where he was on the other side of the bed, opposite the curtain.

"_Kagome_."

"What?" she snapped, just catching sight of two people in the dim lighting.

"You're in a hospital gown," the half-demon reminded her in an odd tone of voice.

With a squeal, Kagome whirled around, clasping the back of her gown shut over what she now realized was her nude backside. She was happy to see that Inuyasha had one hand pressed tightly over his eyes, but the way he was blushing meant he'd seen _something_.

"Oh, my god," the girl said in a very tormented sort of way, looking pleadingly up at the ceiling. "I feel like I'm in a _really bad _romantic comedy."

"With murderous ghosts," Inuyasha pointed out. "Okay, moving past the fact that you just mooned me. Did you see anything?"

"Did _you _see anything?"

The hunter sighed a very long, drawn-out sigh and peeked through a space between two fingers. "If I'm honest here, do I earn brownie points with you?" At Kagome's nod, he continued, "Yes. But only a little bit. Now, did you see anything on the other side of the curtain?"

"Not really," Kagome stood in her spot, dancing around uncomfortably. Finally, she demanded, "Hand me your suit jacket."

"Fine," he grumbled, shrugging out of the requested article of clothing. Kagome was both surprised and pleased to see that he looked as good in a crisp white button-down as he did in his scruffy flannel shirts that she'd begun to grow used to. Once she had the jacket in hand, she quickly tied it around her waist. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

Not bothering to answer, Kagome pulled the curtain open several feet to reveal what lay on the other side. Inuyasha lurched to his feet, too late to stop her.

"Hi, I'm Kagome!" the girl greeted in a chipper manner that did not go with the fact that she was covered in soot, her hair was bedraggled, and she was barefoot wearing a hospital gown.

The middle-aged woman on the other side was startled into a polite smile; she had a kind face. "Hello there, I'm Shinobu Sato. And this is Sintaru, my son." Here, she indicated Kagome's fellow patient, a little boy hooked up to several machines. Kagome studied them, a frown quickly overtaking her smile as she realized that Sintaru was in a coma. The situation was even more unsettling because she knew these names—this was the mother and brother of Mayu, the first fire victim.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the girl said, forcing herself to continue to smile. It helped that Inuyasha had come to stand by her side, even going so far as to place a hand on the small of her back to support her—unfortunately, thanks to the gown, that meant his hand was actually pressed against her skin; she ignored the tingly feeling it gave her. "I thought it would be nice to get to know my roommate, but I see… I'm very sorry."

Shinobu smiled pleasantly, but there was a sheen of tears to her eyes that Kagome doubted ever went away. "You seem to be just fine, dear, why are you here?"

"She was in a fire," Inuyasha explained, his voice a little too harsh for Kagome's liking. The mother winced visibly, and Kagome's heart ached for her, but she understood why the half-demon was suspicious. It was a fire at this woman's house that had led to eighteen more fires (nineteen, counting the library) that had killed six people in three weeks. She could be involved.

"Same with Sintaru, but I'm happy to see you made it out in much better shape," Shinobu told Kagome honestly. The women smiled at one another, and Inuyasha felt at a loss.

Seriously?

Kagome could bond with _anyone_. It was a little annoying.

The nurse from earlier suddenly entered the room and looked at the four of them. "Alright!" she announced brightly, clapping her hands together once before clasping them over her chest. "I think it's time the visitors went home. You should get some more rest, young lady, and the doctor needs to check on Sintaru."

Before she could protest, Inuyasha placed a hand on Kagome's elbow. "She's right, see if you can get some more sleep," he told Kagome. He felt the nurse's eyes on him, and when the hunter glanced over, he saw the dreamy smile on the woman's face. With a hardly contained sigh, he leaned over and pecked Kagome on the cheek as quickly as he possibly could and then patted her on the head. (A little like she was a dog.) The girl grinned at him anyway.

"I'm going to check on Sango real quick, and then Miroku and I are going to…" Inuyasha paused, looking around at the others in the room. "Read. We're going to read."

"Okay," Kagome responded brightly. "I'll hold down the fort here."

"I believe she'll be officially released at the end of the doctor's shift this evening," the nurse told Inuyasha, guiding him from the room. "That's only a few more hours. If you leave your number, I'll give you a call."

"Thanks," he grumbled, disappearing out the door.

The nurse looked to Shinobu, so the mother quickly kissed her son on the forehead before leaving the room without another word to Kagome. Finally, the nurse followed her out.

"Hmm," Kagome hummed; she perched on the edge of her bed to study the little boy. His breathing was slow and deep, aided by the machines surrounding him. There was a steady beep to indicate a normal heart rate. "You're a mystery," she mumbled to Sintaru, pursing her lips in thought. Could he really be involved? Or could his mother be starting the fires? It was possible, Kagome thought, that one of them had the ability to start fires with their minds. With all the things she'd seen lately, she wouldn't exactly be surprised. If Shinobu or Sintaru was angry enough, they could be arsonists—with or without knowing that they were doing it.

But what was with the little girl giggle that the witnesses, and Kagome herself, had heard?

As if on cue, someone giggled.

Jumping out of her skin (figuratively not literally, of course), the ex-nurse looked around the room, her blue eyes wide. Just as she was beginning to convince herself that she was imagining things, there was a rush of wind that tugged at her hair and then another giggle.

"Come on!" Kagome hissed at the room, her brow furrowed. "Haven't I had a crappy enough day already?"

A gust of wind nudged her wheeled hospital bed several inches over the tiled floor. With a surprised squeak, Kagome hopped off and backed into a corner. Where was that nosy nurse when she was actually needed?

"Hello?" Kagome called out, tightening the arms of Inuyasha's suit jacket around her waist. She really wished she had on some proper clothes if she had to do any more monster-slash-demon-slash-ghost hunting. At least some underwear would have been nice. "Sintaru, are you doing this?"

The little boy slumbered on, his breathing, if anything, even deeper.

Something flickered out of the corner of her eye.

Kagome pressed her back to the wall, her fingers splayed over the surface as she scrutinized her surroundings. It was difficult, but she fought to keep her heartbeat normal.

There, again, a figure shimmered into existence right before her eyes before disappearing, like it had been snuffed out. Only seconds later, it was back again, sputtering almost like an image on an old television. A little girl with pigtails.

Son of a—

It was even creepier than the centipede monster.

"Hi, there," Kagome called out, trying to keep her voice upbeat and steady. "My name's Kagome. What's yours?"

The kid glanced at her, and the woman could have sworn her eyes were red—like, demonically red. The little girl giggled again, but she wasn't smiling—she definitely didn't look happy at all. If anything, she looked really, _really _angry.

Another gust of wind pushed Kagome into the wall, and she struggled against the heavy, invisible weight pressing against her shoulders.

"Are you… Are you Mayu?"

The little girl glared, and something a hell of a lot stronger than a breeze slapped Kagome full in the face. Her temple bounced against the wall, and a headache started to brew. Was it just her or did the monsters always target _her_? Considering Inuyasha and Miroku were the demon hunters, they sure seemed to be missing a lot of the action.

"Yeah, you're totally Mayu," Kagome muttered, lifting one hand to rub the lump forming near her eyebrow. Her mind was racing—could Mayu become solid and actually touch things, like Naraku had, or did she only have control over this wind? It had taken Naraku almost a century to get as powerful as he had. How on earth was Mayu, a little girl dead less than two months, able to do this kind of damage? "How are you starting the fires?" she asked in a whisper.

To answer her, Mayu snapped her little fingers and the curtain went up in flames. The little girl flickered, and then she was gone.

"Nurse!" Kagome screamed immediately, a wave of heat surging toward her. "_Nurse_! A little help, please!"

Instead of one nurse, Kagome got four—plus a doctor and what seemed to be a janitor—all rushing into the room. When they saw the fire, all but one of them panicked. The janitor, thankfully, ran back into the hall and retrieved a fire extinguisher. Within moments, the flames were under control.

"How did this happen?" the doctor demanded, his voice an octave too high, which proved just how terrified he actually was.

"I-I don't know," Kagome stuttered, her eyes frantically searching the room to come up with an excuse that wouldn't make her sound like a pyromaniac. She had, after all, already been involved in one fire that day. "I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, the curtains were on fire!"

The janitor inspected the smoldering remains of the curtains. "There's a frayed cord down here by this machine; maybe that's what caused it?"

With a huge sigh of relief, not to mention extreme gratitude toward the janitor, Kagome nodded her head eagerly. "Yes! _Yes_. Exactly. I heard some weird sparking sounds earlier. I didn't really think much about it, but it could have been that cord," she lied. Then, with every ounce of girlishness in her, Kagome fluttered her eyelashes at the men around her. "I'm just so grateful you guys were here to save me."

The older doctor and the janitor rubbed the back of their heads in an _ah-shucks-little-lady _kind of way.

"So, does this mean I can go home early?"

* * *

><p>The following morning, Kagome woke up safe and sound in the shabby motel bed. There were no cockroaches, although there were two grumpy-looking hunters curled up on a couple of blankets on the floor. Sango was supposed to be released by noon, and Kagome hadn't seen the creepy little girl since the previous night at the hospital. The day was so far shaping up to be a lot better than the one before.<p>

"I've been thinking," Kagome said over breakfast at a local diner. She ignored the way both Inuyasha and Miroku groaned as if thinking were a bad thing. "How are we supposed to stop Mayu? I mean, with Naraku, we burned his bones. But Mayu died _in a fire_, so there isn't anything to burn, right?"

"Everything about this case is messed up," Inuyasha grumbled, stabbing his pancakes repeatedly with a fork. "How could a little girl dead for only six weeks have this kind of power? She should be a really weak spirit."

"Hey!" Kagome brightened. "I was thinking that, too!"

"Wow," he retorted dryly. "You can use your brain."

Kagome kicked him under the table.

Feeling like a father trying to keep the peace between his two bratty children, Miroku waved his hand between them as if it could serve as a good physical barrier. "Cut it out," he snapped impatiently. Really, he was beginning to think he was the only adult. "Basically, we're all agreeing that there's more to it than just the little girl, right? I'm betting she's being controlled by another spirit—a stronger, older one."

Pondering this, Kagome twirled her fork in a puddle of syrup, her eyes downcast. "So, we need to go after this other spirit in order to stop Mayu and the fires."

"Half-demon," Miroku addressed his best friend, ignoring the bewildered look of a passing waitress. "Use that demonic brain of yours and drudge up some spirit lore that could be useful."

"I'm not a supernatural dictionary," Inuyasha grumbled, but it was obvious that he was digging around in his brain pretty hard trying to come up with something. What kind of spirit would control a little girl and force her to kill people? That seemed kind of awful—as in, even worse than the usual brand of awful they ran into. Then again, Mayu had to be vulnerable to be controlled in the first place. Chances were that she wasn't the sweet little thing that everyone thought she was. "There was… I mean, once, when I was little…"

"Yes?" Kagome prodded, jabbing the spoon she was using to stir her coffee in his direction.

The hunter glanced down at the table; if Kagome and Miroku didn't know any better, Inuyasha actually seemed _sad_. "When I was little, my mother used to tell me these myths and stuff. One was about the Soul Piper—a demon who entertained dead children before their spirits moved on. He's supposed to be a good guy most of the time, but if he meets a corrupt child, then he becomes corrupted as well until the kid is cast down into hell."

"…Your mom told you this story when you were little," Kagome commented in an awed voice. "Seriously? 'Cause that would have given me nightmares."

"We weren't exactly a traditional family," he countered, pointing at the baseball cap. What he was really indicating was his demon ears. "Anyway, if the story was true and if the Soul Piper is involved, then Mayu could be feeding off his power, using it to wreak havoc, you know?"

"What makes you so sure it's this Soul Piper guy?" Miroku asked.

"Well, for one, we're dealing with a malevolent _child's_ spirit, which isn't something you see every day. For another, didn't the witnesses all say they heard a flute?"

"I did, too," Kagome said excitedly. "At the library!"

"The Soul Piper uses a flute to entertain the kids," Inuyasha explained, shoving away his half empty plate. It was the first time Kagome hadn't seen him devour everything in front of him in addition to some off of everyone else's plates. "I'm willing to bet on it."

There was a moment of silence as they all considered the fact that they really didn't have any other leads. "What does that mean, then? What's the next step?" Kagome asked, looking back and forth between the two men.

"It means we exorcise the spirit and send Mayu to hell."

A shiver raced down Kagome's spine at Miroku's words.

With a low grumble in his throat (exorcising ghosts was actually kind of tedious), Inuyasha pulled out his wallet and slapped down a few bills to cover the cost of their breakfast. "Miroku and I will go get the supplies while you pick up Sango from the hospital. The more people we have for this, the better."

Only a few minutes later, they split up outside the diner to complete their tasks.

When Sango appeared in the hospital lobby less than an hour later, a nurse at her side, she looked pale but otherwise healthy. The brunette even smiled when she spotted Kagome. The hospital had washed her clothes, so they wouldn't smell like they'd been inside a burning building.

"Hi, buddy!" Kagome greeted her best friend cheerfully. "Everything's all worked out. Let's get going."

Before they were even out the door, Sango sent a strange look Kagome's way. "How'd we pay for the hospital visits?"

"Inuyasha gave them some fake name and insurance things—I don't really understand it, and as an ex-nurse, I feel bad for the hospital. However, as someone with no money, I think I might be okay with this demon hunting fraud thing."

"Oh, Kagome," Sango said in a gloomy voice, but she was grinning. "It's only been a week, and they've already turned you into a hardened criminal."

"I guess I should fill you in," Kagome muttered, helping Sango into the SUV she'd borrowed from Miroku. "After we got to the hospital yesterday, the little girl—whose name is Mayu, by the way, she died in the very first fire—showed up and tried to set my room on fire. We're thinking she might have caused the fire she died in by putting a scarf on the radiator, which also put her older brother into a coma. Since she was already kind of evil when she died, she was a corrupt spirit, so when she ran into this demon who takes care of ghost children, she corrupted _him_. She's been channeling his power to start fires and kill other people, mostly targeting single mothers. I think she has a mother-complex. The only way to stop her and the demon she's been feeding off of is to exorcise her spirit and send her to hell."

"Ah-ha! So it _was _the Soul Piper! I thought so," Sango announced with a triumphant grin.

"Wait, you know about the Soul Piper? How?"

"When we were in the library, I was in the mythology section," Sango reminded her. "It was right after I finished reading about the legend of the Soul Piper that the creepy little pigtailed brat showed up. Obviously, I didn't have time to tell you guys that I thought I was on to something. Oh, by the way…"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you ever let them shove a tube down my throat again," Sango growled, glaring at her best friend and jostling her with an elbow.

Kagome chuckled, glancing away from the road and at the brunette for just a second. "Fine. I'll just let you die next time."

"If necessary," Sango agreed with a scowl, settling back against the seat. "Now let's get rid of this pigtailed freak show."

* * *

><p>"I'm really uncomfortable with this plan," Kagome muttered that evening, picking her way over a charcoaly lump that vaguely resembled an armchair. Although it had been well over a month, everything still seemed to be soggy from when the firefighters had doused the burning house to put out the fire. Everything smelled like smoke, and ash had already ruined her shoes. "This place doesn't seem safe."<p>

"We have to do it in the place where the person died," Miroku explained, holding out his hand to help Sango climb over a pile of charred wood. The brunette hopped down on the other side, stumbled, but was steadied by Miroku's firm grip. The two smiled at each other. (Inuyasha and Kagome both rolled their eyes.)

"I can't believe this was Mayu's house," Kagome whispered as if the ghost could hear her. Actually, maybe she could. "It's not very big."

"She lived with a single mother," Inuyasha pointed out. There was something about his voice that struck Kagome as funny—and then she remembered that he lived with his single mother for years before she died. The half-demon could actually relate to this. "It was probably a hard life. Mayu didn't understand that her mother had to work all the time to support the family. She probably blamed Sintaru for taking up any of their mother's attention—for all we know, Mayu started the fire just to get her mother to notice her."

"Yeah, well, she's still been killing people since then," Kagome muttered sourly. She'd almost been a victim twice, so there was no way she was going to be understanding or sympathetic.

Miroku paused, looking around the half-collapsed house. "Let's stop here; this seems like the center."

"Please tell me we don't have to sit down in this," Sango pleaded, lifting up one of her feet and watching the caked ash fall from her shoe in clumps.

"No, we can stand. Just make sure to hold the fire, holy water, and chicken blood steady," Inuyasha ordered, opening up a backpack and dolling out supplies to everyone. Kagome pulled a face when she got a Tupperware container full of coagulated blood.

"I bet you guys made all of this up," she accused, holding it out at arm's length and trying not to gag. Sango openly laughed at this, considering Kagome was a trained medical professional. "This seems kind of silly. I mean—chicken blood, really?"

"No, this ceremony is the product of a lot of very intense research!" Miroku countered defensively, swapping his vial of holy water for the chicken blood to stop Kagome from making faces. He'd never be able to take anything seriously while standing across from that.

"Just repeat after me." Inuyasha commanded before launching into a long string of words in a guttural language that Kagome had never heard before. Miroku echoed him flawlessly, but Sango and Kagome exchanged a wide-eyed look.

"Guh ah-go mah-luck?" Kagome tried, her brow furrowed.

Miroku and Inuyasha sighed in an exasperated fashion.

"Okay, Miroku and I will say the chant, you two just… stand there and shut up," Inuyasha corrected, obviously frustrated with their lack of usefulness.

"We can do that!" Kagome said brightly. Her best friend nodded eagerly.

After a deep breath, the hunters began chanting again, this time in unison. Their deep voices resonated around the ruined house, and Kagome fought against the chill trying to creep down her spine. Something stirred the ash by her feet, and her blue eyes searched the surroundings for any sign of Mayu.

Instead of the little girl, she saw another figure—not even vaguely human, but something large and spherical with wide eyes that stared at their group from beyond one ruined wall of the house.

"Inuyasha," she whispered, but his eyes were closed, and both he and Miroku continued to chant. When she looked to Sango, the brunette was staring at the demon, too.

"The Soul Piper," she identified in a low voice, recognizing it from an illustration in the mythology book at the library. "Its eyes are open—that means it's corrupted."

Another gust of wind circled them and with a sharp _crack_, a beam from the ceiling crashed to the floor. The hunters, their eyes still closed tight, continued with the ceremony as if nothing was happening. The demon in the distance lifted a flute to its mouth, and a haunting melody struck a chord in Kagome. It was all she could do to not abandon the others and take off running.

Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse, there was a girlish giggle.

Mayu flickered into existence behind Sango, and Kagome's eyes grew wider because before she could warn her best friend, the little girl snapped her fingers, and Sango's jacket went up in flames. Without thinking, Kagome uncapped the vial of holy water and splashed it in the brunette's direction. It barely made a dent in the flames, but when it touched Mayu, the spirit shrieked and winked out of existence—

Only to appear several feet away, infuriated, her skin bubbling where the water had hit her.

Sango tore off the flaming jacket and threw it from her. It landed on a pile of already burnt lumber; it continued to burn, but at least the fire didn't spread.

Mayu lifted one of her tiny little hands to snap her fingers again, probably to light Kagome's hair on fire this time, but she stumbled like someone had shoved her from behind.

Kagome realized that the men's voices were much louder and more intense, and the air behind Mayu shimmered before it seemed like reality itself was splitting. A gapping hole rent the space behind the little girl, yawning wider, full of undulating black smoke and angry flashes of lightning. There was something else in there that set the hairs on Kagome's arms on end, a face that she swore she recognized. Mayu fell to her hands and knees and clawed at charred floor of her old house, but it was like something had her by the ankles, dragging her toward opening. With one last final scream, the little girl disappeared inside, and the air slammed together as if the hole was never there in the first place.

When Kagome turned to where the demon had been floating, she saw the Soul Piper now had its eyes closed. Even that one small difference made it look a lot more peaceful than it had before.

"Was that hell?" Kagome whispered to no one in particular—maybe she was even asking the Soul Piper, who didn't seem so evil any more.

"Yeah, sure, I guess we can call that hell; personally, I've never seen it. My eyes are always closed when the portal or whatever shows up," Inuyasha muttered, finally paying attention again. Although Kagome appreciated that he and Miroku continued the chant and finished the ceremony, she had not liked the idea that both hunters had been _right there_ and acting like they couldn't even hear the panic in her and Sango's voices.

"Could… Could anything have escaped from there while you were sending Mayu in?" she asked, her voice small.

"I don't think so," Miroku commented, removing his own coat and handing it over to Sango. The brunette took it thankfully and shrugged into it; it was so large on her that the sleeves hung over her hands. "Why?"

"Because I could have sworn I saw Naraku's face just now."

Silence stretched between the four of them as they stared at the place where Mayu had just disappeared. Just beyond that, the Soul Piper started to fade away, an eerie tune from the flute floating to them on a gentle breeze.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Inuyasha swung an arm around Kagome and turned her around, pointing her in the direction of the car. "Everything will be fine," he promised, although his voice caught on something—doubt, maybe. "Let's go get some sleep; I'm sure we'll have another adventure soon."

As they worked their way over the charred rubble to the SUV, Kagome peered up at Inuyasha and Miroku's faces. "Hey, wait a minute! We never used any of your props," she announced, jabbing a finger at the tupperware container of chicken blood with an accusatory look on her face.

"Okay," Miroku admitted with a chuckle. "Maybe we do make some of this up just to mess with you."

"That's actually brownie batter with some red food dye," Inuyasha explained, removing the lid and sticking his finger in. "See?"

"All I see," she snapped with a girlish growl, "is my fist in your face."

"Wait, wha—_Ow_. Kagome!"


	4. Penumbra

I had a bit of fun with the demonology from canon _Inuyasha _and modern mythology, so yes, the plot of this chapter will probably be a little weird. If you have any questions, please PM me or leave them in a review!

Next chapter will have more horror, less action-adventure, but until then—enjoy this update, please!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Penumbra

* * *

><p>If Kagome were to describe her current situation to her high school friends (Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi—three girls she hadn't seen in years), they would have been squealing. That kind of fan-girl squealing that shatters windows and eardrums alike. Just what exactly was her current situation? Kagome was sitting in close quarters with an attractive man, close enough that their arms were brushing together, in the middle of the night. Above them was a nearly full moon, and the soft sounds of night pressed against the car windows.<p>

Unfortunately, Kagome had been stuck in this situation for _five _hours.

"This is boring!" she complained for the umpteenth time.

"For the love of god, please shut up," Inuyasha muttered, dropping the binoculars he'd been looking through. No longer obscured, his eyes (a warm, liquid gold that could stun Kagome with a single glance if she wasn't careful) glared at the girl.

The two were on a stakeout, watching a dirty-looking house less than a quarter of a mile away; all around it were open fields and the grove of trees where they'd parked. Their snacks were long gone, and Kagome's legs were cramping from being in the same position for hours. The SUV, which originally seemed roomy, was starting to close in on her. And why did Inuyasha have to be so freaking _large_? He'd taken over the entire middle armrest, and the half-demon was stealing her fresh air, damn it.

Okay, maybe she was going a little stir crazy.

Wouldn't you?

Plus, every time they were alone together, especially when it was real quiet like it was right then, Kagome remembered that there was a pink elephant in the room (slash SUV)—absolutely no one would talk with her about Naraku's twisted face staring at her from hell during the Mayu fiasco. Inuyasha dodged the topic every time she tried to bring it up. She only hoped that wasn't a colossal mistake waiting to happen.

"It would help if you or Miroku actually explained things once in awhile," she scolded the hunter, who merely rolled his eyes in response. "I know you two think you're being all mysterious by keeping your mouths shut, but how are Sango and I supposed to help if we don't even know what we're hunting?"

"Fine!" he snapped, holding the binoculars out to her. After she took them and put them to her eyes, Inuyasha pointed in the direction he had been watching. "See that house?" She nodded. "We think that house is a cave."

"A cave," Kagome repeated, her voice deadpan. "It can't be a cave, it's a _house_. You just said that."

The half-demon sighed in an overly exasperated manner. "Not literally a cave—like a modern day den, or a hideout."

"For what?"

"A pack."

"Oh, right, a pack. Of course," Kagome muttered sarcastically. Really, it was like pulling teeth trying to get any information out of these men. Despite the fact that they had been on the road together for three weeks, she still knew next to nothing about them. Inuyasha hated to talk about his past, while Miroku told such elaborate stories that both girls were pretty sure everything out of his mouth was a lie. "A pack of _what_, dumbass?"

Frustrated, Inuyasha pinched her on the arm.

"Hey!" she protested, rubbing her bruised flesh with a pout.

"Don't call me names," he growled. "And remember that I could do a lot worse than pinch you."

"Fine! A pack of what, _Inuyasha_?"

"Demons," he explained. Seeing the annoyed look on her face, the hunter volunteered the next tidbit all on his own. "A pack of wolf demons."

"Ahh," Kagome said in an enlightened tone as if he had just shared the meaning of life with her. A beat passed as she considered this. "So, you're a half-dog demon, and these are wolf demons. Does that mean there are other random demons?" she asked, putting the binoculars back to her face and peering through them. The house in the distance was very dark; it didn't look like anyone was home—or had been for years.

"Like what?"

"Are there ladybug demons?" Kagome questioned, not bothering to hide her grin. "Wait, wait—_squirrel _demons?"

"Yes," Inuyasha admitted. "Tonight, however, we are focusing on wolf demons."

Before they could continue this conversation, Kagome's cell phone rang—a very irritating pop song that she let continue for a full ten seconds (the horrified and disgusted look on Inuyasha's face at the loud ringtone echoing around the cramped car was priceless) before answering.

"Hello!" she said cheerily, and then she looked to Inuyasha and mouthed, 'It's Sango.' "How's research with Miroku going?"

"I wouldn't know," Sango replied, sounding frustrated even over the phone line. Thanks to Inuyasha's enhanced hearing capabilities, he picked up every word. "It's almost eleven, and the library's about to close; I lost him hours ago in the art section. I think he's looking at paintings of naked women as we speak— or he's looking up porn on the public computers."

"Is it just me or is he becoming more of a pervert as time goes on?" Kagome asked.

"It's him," Inuyasha and Sango responded simultaneously, spooking Kagome. She shot Inuyasha a dirty look for listening in on the conversation, but he just gestured at his ears and then shrugged in a _What are you gonna do_? kind of way.

"How are things on your end?" Sango asked. Half a second later, before Kagome could reply, she continued, "What are you two even doing anyway?"

"We're staking out some creepy house to see if there are wolf demons," Kagome explained.

"Ahh, so that's what we're dealing with! You know, it would really help if they actually told us things every once in awhile," the brunette muttered, earning her an eye-roll from Inuyasha that she couldn't see. In the background of the call, Kagome could hear as Sango began typing on a computer, probably running a search on wolf demons now that she knew what to look for. "Why are we hunting wolf demons? I mean, are we assuming any and all demons are bad? Because Inuyasha and that Sesshoumaru guy are demons, and we're not killing them, so…"

"Give me that," Inuyasha demanded, holding his hand out and wiggling his fingers. When Kagome didn't hand over her phone fast enough, he snatched it away and put it on speakerphone. "Sango? It's me. Both of you listen carefully: we are _not _hunting wolf demons. We are only checking up on them. Is that clear? Even though they're weak compared to—oh, I don't know—_me_, they are still dangerous."

"Aye, aye, captain," Sango responded sarcastically, while Kagome openly scoffed.

"Why are we checking up on them then?" Kagome demanded, wondering why they had just spent five hours stuck in a car if they weren't even there to kill anything.

"Sesshoumaru says there's been some trouble in this city, some maulings that look like they were done by a wolf. He asked me to make sure these demons aren't the ones doing it," he explained, gesturing toward the rundown, quiet house. It seriously looked innocent—dirty, but innocent.

"Would wolf demons actually maul someone?" she asked. Sango was silent on her end, meaning she was listening closely.

"Wolf demons are mangy, pieces of crap," Inuyasha growled, startling Kagome. Clearly, he had issues. "And they're stupid. Really stupid. But I don't think they'd actually maul anyone… Then again, they do live with actual wolves, and one of those could have killed some people."

"Oh," Kagome answered faintly, wondering if she should try to calm him down; Inuyasha was actually bristling, obviously upset over something. Were wolf demons and dog demons natural enemies or something? "So we're thinking it's an actual wolf," Kagome concluded for him. "Or maybe it could be a werewolf?"

Inuyasha openly laughed her suggestion.

"Kagome," he chided, pretending to wipe a tear of mirth from the corner of his eye. At least he'd calmed down some, even if that's not what Kagome had been aiming for with her serious question. "There's no such thing as werewolves."

"But—!"

Before Kagome could say anything more, something struck the passenger side of the SUV, rocking the entire vehicle where they were parked. She screamed as she was tossed in Inuyasha's direction. It was like they'd just been T-boned by another car, except for the fact that there was no other car.

"Kagome? Kagome! What happened?" Sango demanded, her voice tiny through the phone's speaker where Inuyasha had dropped it on the floor.

"We'll call you back!" Kagome shouted as the SUV rocked again, rattling her teeth. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, yeah; I've got this," he muttered, holding onto the girl tightly. When she'd been thrown from her seat, she'd collided with his chest, and now Inuyasha held her in place against him with one arm.

A third time, the SUV lurched, temporarily lifting up on the two driver's side wheels, and gravity yanked the pair against the window—and then the car fell back to the ground, jostling Kagome, who tried very hard not to scream again.

"Will you stop that?" Inuyasha roared, his voice loud in Kagome's ear. Even though she didn't think she was doing anything other than holding on for dear life, she froze. "Not you," he mumbled to her, his tone low and rough. Then, louder, he shouted, "Cut that out you mangy, flea-bitten—!"

The driver's side door was wrenched open, and Inuyasha fell backwards, taking Kagome with him. He landed on his back, the girl still cradled to his chest, and he blinked up at the circle of faces surrounding them.

"I am going to kill you," he threatened the wolf pack, but his voice was eerily calm. "You better not have dented the car."

"You're on our territory," one spat; the wolf demon looked fairly young to Kagome, and his hair was gelled into a crazy, punk mohawk along the crown of his head.

"Oh, for the love of—" Inuyasha cut himself off, hugged Kagome to himself tighter, and leaped up as soon as he was sure she was secure. Once up, he gingerly set her down on her feet. She swayed but stayed standing, leaning into his chest for support. Her eyes were wide, but at least she wasn't screaming—or, even worse, talking. "Okay, technically yes, but _you're _on _Sesshoumaru's _territory. I'm here on his orders."

The pack shared a long look between one another before a few of them had the grace to look ashamed of themselves. It made Kagome wonder just how terrifying Sesshoumaru was if the mere mention of his name made this lot tuck their tails between their legs in submission—literally, she noticed, her eyes growing even wider when she saw that they all had tails jutting out of the seat of their pants.

"We're sorry about attacking your car," said a new one as he stepped forward; he was actually a pleasant-looking guy. "I'm Ginta, and this is Hakkaku," he introduced, motioning toward the wolf with the mohawk.

Now that they were no longer snarling at her, Kagome noticed that all of them—about eight or nine total—were young men dressed like total punks, but all with fairly open- and honest-looking faces. She hadn't seen that much leather since… well, since ever. Kagome was sure that any one of them could tear her guts out if they wanted to, but at the same time, they were acting pretty friendly for the moment.

"Hi," she greeted, stepping away from Inuyasha's protective hold and proffering her hand—much to his bemusement. Again, why did she have to go and make friends with _everybody_? "I'm Kagome."

"Hello," Ginta replied, his cheeks even a little pink as he took her hand. "You smell nice."

"Oh! Thanks, I guess," Kagome was startled into answering. She then shook hands with Hakkaku, followed by each of the others. "Is this all of you?"

"There's another seven on their way—the women and two kids," Hakkaku told her honestly, clearly willing to cooperate if she was the one asking the questions.

Inuyasha stepped in front of Kagome, easily blocking her from view. He had this real irritated expression on his face like he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. "Okay, whatever. Listen, have you guys been killing people?"

"Inuyasha!"

He ignored Kagome's scolding tone. "Have you?" he pushed, glaring down the two who seemed to be in charge.

"Of course not!" Ginta exclaimed, waving his hands in front of himself like a makeshift shield.

"Yeah, man, we'd never do that," Hakkaku added, trying for his most innocent expression. Despite the mohawk, he actually pulled it off. "We've been thinking it was a werewolf."

"_There's no such thing as werewolves_!" Inuyasha exploded. He no longer seemed to find the suggestion laughable. Or maybe he was just irritated that it was a wolf demon instead of a pretty girl saying it.

"Okay, this is just getting silly now," Kagome intervened, putting a hand to Inuyasha's chest. He calmed down a bit, but still had an angry, brooding look hanging over his features that would terrify just about anyone. "Why don't we go inside and discuss this like… well, like demonic demon hunting adults, yes?"

Ginta slung an arm around Kagome's shoulders and directed her to the house, grinning the entire time. "Yes, yes, great idea! Let's have some tea," he suggested.

Hakkaku appeared on her other side, sliding one of _his _arms around her waist. "That sounds good to me."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Inuyasha snapped, falling in line behind them. "Kagome, stop fraternizing with the enemy!"

"I thought they weren't the enemy. I thought we were only 'checking up on them'!" she pointed out snidely, looking like she was really enjoying herself with the pack. Then again, she was the center of attention, and Inuyasha had noticed the girl rather liked it when everyone paid attention to her. Unfortunately, that sometimes backfired, and monsters seemed to focus on her, too.

Before he could protest again, Inuyasha felt his cell phone buzz in his back pocket. When he pulled it out, he saw Sango's disgruntled face on his screen. (Miroku had surprised her when he took the picture; the brunette had not appreciated it.) Somehow, he figured her current expression matched the pissed off one in the photo, even if he couldn't see her through the phone. "Hey, everything's fine," Inuyasha said immediately after picking up.

"I hate you two! You had me so freaking worried," the brunette shouted at him.

The half-demon pulled the phone away from his ear—well, technically, the side of his head. It would look silly if he held a phone all the way up to an ear since they were at the crown of his head. He winced at both the volume and decibel of her voice. "Sorry," Inuyasha muttered. "We ran into some wolf demons, but we're getting things straightened out. Kagome's okay."

"Good, and she better stay that way," the girl's best friend growled. Human or not, Sango would do what she could to take down Inuyasha. He had no doubt that she'd be able to deal quite a bit of damage before he could stop her.

"You and Miroku should head back to the motel; we'll meet you there as soon as we can."

"Whatever," the brunette muttered almost bitterly. "Next time, you two have to do the research half of the hunt."

"Deal," Inuyasha mumbled, watching Kagome's retreating back. It was like she was catnip for wolf demons considering the way they were all hanging off of her. "Watch your backs," he reminded Sango, snapping himself out of it. "We still don't know what's killing people in this city."

"Hey, wait," Sango said suddenly, sensing that he was about to hang up on her. "What are you guys doing right now?"

"Apparently having tea with a pack of wolves."

With that, Inuyasha hung up and trotted after the group. _Someone _had to keep Kagome out of trouble.

* * *

><p>"There you are!" Miroku exclaimed as he came across Sango in the parking lot ten minutes after she'd spoken with Inuyasha. "Where have you been?"<p>

The brunette gave him a very dry look. "Seriously?" she asked, jabbing a finger into his chest and not falling for his innocent expression. "While you were looking up naked women, I was trying to do research on wolf demons in the last five minutes before the library closed on us. By the way, thanks oh-so-much for telling me what we were researching before ditching me."

"My dearest Sango," Miroku replied, not missing a beat, "you are such a hard working woman. Why would I ever need to look at nude women online when I have your beautiful face to keep me company every day?"

"I will castrate you," she warned, pushing away from the telephone pole she had been leaning against. It was after eleven o'clock at night, and the library parking lot was very dark despite the street lights every ten yards. The librarians had taken off right after close, leaving her alone waiting for Miroku to show up. "Inuyasha and Kagome are having tea with a pack of wolf demons."

"…Excuse me?"

"I have no idea," Sango admitted, running a hand through her long brown hair in frustration. "I'm sure they'll explain once they meet us back at the motel. Oh, and your SUV might be totaled."

"…_Excuse me_?"

Sango shrugged, honestly unsure of what happened; she'd heard what sounded like a car crash over the phone, but there really hadn't been enough information to go off of. "I suggest not worrying about it until we know for certain. What's our plan now?"

"How about we grab a bite to eat while we go over the autopsy files of all the victims that I borrowed from the county morgue database?"

"Or," Sango countered, quirking both eyebrows, "we grab a bite to eat and _then _go over the gross, graphic autopsy files. When did you hack into a morgue?"

"At the library."

Before Sango could say anything to that, she stopped in her tracks—her phone was buzzing. Miroku was intrigued by the way she stared at the screen for several long seconds, deciding whether or not she really wanted to answer. Finally, with a sigh, the brunette accepted the call and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Who is that?" Miroku asked curiously, leaning closer and wishing he had Inuyasha's super hearing. It would make eavesdropping so much easier.

Sango waved him away with a frown. "Hi! Yeah, it's been a long time. … She's fine; I just talked to her. … I'm sure she's not avoiding your calls. I think she dropped her phone or something. … Yep, we, uh, we decided to do a cross-country road trip. Impulsive, right? ... Are you okay? You sound funny. … If you say so. … I'll tell her that you called; try again later, okay? … Yeah, bye."

After Sango hung up, she stood there for a full minute, staring down at her phone with a troubled expression.

"What's going on?" Miroku reached out and brushed his fingertips against her arm, just enough physical contact to snap her out of her thoughts.

"That was Kouga," Sango told him, still looking confused.

"And Kouga is…" Miroku trailed off, waving his hand around in the air, silently urging her to continue.

"Kouga is Kagome's ex-boyfriend," she clarified finally, slipping her phone into her back pocket and starting to walk in the direction of their motel. Miroku fell into step beside her. "They only dated for about six months earlier this year, but they've known each other since college."

A beat passed as Miroku chewed this over. Despite his great intellectual skills, he still didn't understand why Sango was acting so weird over a phone call from her best friend's ex-boyfriend. "Is he a bad guy or something? Are you worried that he's trying to get in touch with Kagome?"

"No!" Sango denied immediately. Then she paused and smiled at him in a reassuring way. "No, that's not it. He's actually a really good guy. Even though he hated Kagome's urban exploration thing, he always went with her to make sure she didn't get hurt in those creepy, old buildings. It's just weird, because he sounded… Well, he sounded really upset. Kouga asked about us quitting our jobs and taking off, but I don't think that's what was worrying him."

"When you say 'upset,' what kind of upset do you mean?"

The chilly air forced its way underneath their collars, and Sango shivered. Automatically, Miroku pressed closer against her side, and the body heat warmed her up some even though the physical contact made her a little uncomfortable. Still, she didn't pull away.

"Not angry upset," Sango explained slowly, studying her feet as they walked. She hesitated while she tried to pin down exactly what she was thinking. Although Kagome was the one known for her people skills, Sango had a good eye—and ear—for details. "He sounded scared."

"And Kouga doesn't get scared," Miroku concluded, looking down at the top of Sango's head, wondering if it would be a good idea to wrap an arm around her to keep her warm. Although his intentions would be (for once) honorable, he didn't think Sango would appreciate the gesture.

"No, he really doesn't," Sango muttered, shoving her hands into her coat pockets. "I got the feeling he needed to talk to Kagome about—Oh, my god, _what is that_?"

Sango stumbled to a stop, and Miroku nearly tripped when the brunette latched onto his arm with a death grip. He followed the direction of her horrified gaze and noticed a hulking figure in the bushes not even five yards away, its dark fur blending in with the shadows. Two large eyes glinted back at them. After a few seconds, they noticed that there was something steadily dripping from its jaws, pooling in a puddle by…

Was that a severed human foot?

"Ugh," Sango groaned, flinching away from the beast. "Gross."

With very slow, steady movements, Miroku unzipped his coat and reached for his holster, withdrawing his gun. Before he could aim it, however, the figure hunched low to the ground and then sprang toward them, pouncing on its new prey.

Yelping, Sango shoved away from Miroku, forcing him to stumble several feet to the left while she dove to the right—just as the monster landed exactly where they had been standing. It skidded across the pavement, its claws carving out chunks of concrete in its wake. Five hundred, maybe six hundred pounds of muscle, fur, and sharp bits growled at them.

It then turned its attention to Sango, and she was petrified by the sight of its face. The thing looked like a wolf on steroids that had a jaw the size of a car tire and fangs the length of her hand, dripping with a pink mixture of saliva and blood.

"Move!" she heard Miroku shout at her, but she couldn't see him behind the monster. It was leaning back on its haunches again, getting ready to launch itself in her direction.

"I'm moving!" she shouted back at the hunter, pushing off from the ground and taking off down the deserted street in a zigzag motion that she'd seen people do in movies; it was supposed to make her a harder target to hit. Where were all the people? Why was this damn city so empty? "Shoot it!"

"I'm shooting it!" he yelled back, his normally calm voice very agitated.

There was a soft, whistling noise followed by some wet thuds, reminding Sango that Miroku carried a gun with a silencer on it. She felt a breeze brush against her cheek, pulling at her hair, and suddenly the monster was running alongside her, one paw raised to swipe.

Dropping to her knees, Sango felt her knees smack against the pavement and her jeans tear open, but the attack missed. The claws swung over her head just as she buried her face in her arms for protection.

Several more of those wet thuds sounded very close to her ear, she felt something drip onto her hair, and then—finally—a human hand grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sango told Miroku, her eyes wide as she slipped her hand into his grip so that he could help her to her feet. Her hair was wet with the monster's blood. "But I think from now on I need to carry a gun, too."

* * *

><p>When Kagome opened the door to the motel room, she found Sango perched on the edge of the bed in nothing but a t-shirt and a pair of underwear, Miroku kneeling in front of her.<p>

"Oh!" Kagome exclaimed, clapping a hand prudently to her eyes. "I'm so sorry!"

They both laughed at her.

Peeking between her fingers, Kagome stepped further into the room. Now, she saw that Sango's knees were bloody, and Miroku was bandaging them. Thrown over a chair nearby were Sango's jeans, ragged and stained with mud, blood, and muck. "What happened?" she demanded, rushing forward to examine Sango's injuries for herself. Taking the first aid kit from Miroku, she shooed the hunter away. She was, after all, a certified nurse.

"We got attacked by some beast thing. Miroku and I discussed it, and we think it's a werew—"

"I swear to god, if you say werewolf, I will shoot you," Inuyasha grumbled as he closed the door behind him. "Seriously—I will pull out my gun right here, right now, and put a bullet in each of your brains."

"There's no such thing as werewolves," Kagome explained dryly to Sango, rolling her eyes knowing that the half-demon couldn't see her when she had her back to him. "He's been saying that repeatedly all night."

"Inuyasha," Miroku began in a placating tone of voice, motioning for his best friend to take a seat and relax. "Even though it's not the full moon, and you've sworn to me that you have never, ever seen or heard of a real werewolf, I think we need to consider it a possibility. Honestly, man, this thing was hideous. Like if you threw a real wolf into a toxic barrel of waste, and it crawled out a monster."

Kagome secured the bandages into place around Sango's knees and got to her feet. "On the bright side, I wasn't the one who got attacked this time," she pointed out brightly. "Welcome to the club!"

"Gee, thanks," her best friend muttered sarcastically. "Can you get me some pants now?"

Laughing, the other girl did as told. While she dug into the girls' shared duffle bag for a pair of sweatpants, her obnoxious pop song ringtone went off. Pulling her phone out, which she'd found on the floor of the SUV later that evening after leaving the wolf demon den, she was surprised by the name on her caller ID.

"Hello? Oh, hi, Kouga," she answered the phone, tossing the pants to Sango before quickly excusing herself from the room. As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, both of the men whirled on Sango.

"Who's Kouga?" Inuyasha demanded.

"What do you think he wants?" Miroku asked, sounding much more rational and calmer than Inuyasha did at the moment. "Kouga's Kagome's ex-boyfriend," he whispered smugly to his friend, wanting to rub it in the half-demon's face that he knew more about what was going on.

"Why would an ex be calling Kagome?" Inuyasha wondered out loud, sounding very confused. "Why would she _answer_?"

"Apparently Kouga's a good guy," Miroku clarified.

"Yeah, and your mom's a good guy!"

"Very mature," the human of the duo responded sarcastically.

Sango, now dressed in pants, rolled her eyes at the hunters. "Wow, guys, can we all grow up? I'm sure Kagome will tell us what's up with Kouga when she comes back inside. Inuyasha, why don't you tell us about what you found out?"

"Right," the half-demon muttered, tearing his eyes away from the closed door that Kagome had disappeared behind. "The wolf demons swear they're not mauling people, and based on your description of the attacker, it sure doesn't sound like them. They picked up a scent in the city during their own little Nancy Drew investigation, but they couldn't identify it. Oh, and they love Kagome."

"Everyone loves Kagome," Sango pointed out patiently. "Anything else?"

"There's no such thing as werewolves."

"Thanks for that," Miroku told him insincerely. "Really, I mean it. It's not like you're a broken record at all."

"Boys!" the brunette scolded, snapping her fingers to draw their attention to her once more. "So what we've got is that a wolf-like beast, which may or may not be a werewolf, is eating people. How do we kill it?"

"I shot it six times before finally scaring it away," Miroku said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin in the stereotypical gesture of pondering. "I mean, it's like the bullets barely made a dent."

"Maybe we should try silver bullets?" Sango suggested, only half-joking.

Inuyasha growled in frustration, opening his mouth to repeat his thoughts on the werewolf angle.

The door to the motel room opened as Kagome let herself back in, looking stunned. Loosely held in her hand was her cell phone, and she kept wide, unblinking eyes glued to the ground. Once the door was shut, she leaned heavily against it as though she didn't trust herself to have enough strength to keep standing upright on her own.

"Kagome?" Sango asked worriedly, pushing off from the bed and coming to stand beside her best friend.

"Kouga's on his way here," she responded in a quiet voice. "If he drives straight through, he should be here in less than two days. He needs our help."

"What's wrong?" Miroku questioned, coming to stand on her other side. Inuyasha watched from several feet away, looking concerned—whether about Kagome, Kouga, or something else, no one knew.

"Uh," Kagome began and then faltered. She finally glanced up and met the half-demon's eyes instead of either of the others. She was clearly shaken. "He's been bit."

"By what?" Inuyasha asked, furrowing his brow. "Vampire? Zombie?"

"No… By a wolf."

* * *

><p>When Kouga first arrived, pulling up outside the motel thirty-six hours after his phone call, he looked like death—his normally tan face was pale, he was sweaty, and he listed heavily to one side like a sinking ship.<p>

"Kouga!" Kagome greeted in her upbeat, charming way. She was smiling, but it was obvious to everyone that she was beyond worried about the man.

"Hey, kiddo," he responded, ruffling her hair as he passed. For a moment, Kouga slanted far to the side as if he was about to fall over, and Kagome ducked under his arm to support him. Thank goodness they were on the lower level, so he didn't have to climb any stairs. "Sango," he wheezed as they passed the brunette, who was huddled just outside the door with the hunters.

"Hi there, Kouga. You look… alive," she mumbled, ushering everyone in and shutting the door quickly behind them. It was the middle of the day, and she was worried one of the other guests would see them. A man with white hair and dog ears (Inuyasha was refusing to wear a hat that day) and another who looked like he was dying would probably set off some alarms.

In the day and a half since the group had found out Kouga would be joining them, the four had researched their butts off. They poured over the autopsy reports (which were disgusting; these people were literally torn to shreds), they looked up werewolf mythology (Inuyasha scoffed the entire time until Kagome hit him upside the head), and they canvassed the city. There were no more attacks and no more sightings of the beast. No one would say it, but they were all wondering how Kouga had been bit if the monster was in a city thirty-six hours away.

It had to mean there was more than one, didn't it?

"Okay, show me," Kagome ordered, depositing Kouga on one of the two beds.

"Show you what?" Kouga responded. Breathing looked painful. His attention kept getting caught by one of the men standing behind her, the one with the funny-colored hair and eyes—the hunter had an odd expression on his face, like he'd smelled something rotten.

"The bite," she clarified, grabbing the hem of his shirt and tugging at it stubbornly.

Sango bit her lip, trying not to smile. "Jeeze, Kagome, if you're going to undress the man, you could at least wait for us to get out of the room first." The only other person to chuckle was Miroku. Inuyasha was still frowning furiously, and if imagination wasn't playing tricks on anyone, he'd begun to snarl at Kouga.

"Let me get a look at it," Kagome demanded, her cheeks only a little pink. It's not like she hadn't seen Kouga shirtless before—and he looked good shirtless, all lean muscles and well-defined contours.

Finally, her ex stopped resisting, and she was able to pull his shirt halfway up his chest. His entire torso was wrapped in gauze, but there was blood seeping through in a circle just below his ribs. A bite—a really, really big bite.

"How long ago did this happen?" Kagome questioned, brushing her fingers against the bandages. Kouga shivered at her touch, and under the dim lighting, he looked even paler than before.

"Uh—eight days ago," he answered, his voice foggy. "I was walking home from work at night, and there was this rustle, and then… I don't know. Just like that, I was flat on my back, my side felt like it was on fire, and there was this giant dog thing chowing down like I was dinner or something."

"What happened then?" Miroku asked, coming to stand beside Kagome. He placed a hand on her shoulder, and Kouga followed the movement with narrowed, almost angry eyes.

Shaking himself out of whatever thoughts were plaguing his mind, Kouga muttered, "I keep a knife in my boot. I took it out and planted it in the thing's neck. It howled and let me go. Then it ran away."

"The deaths started happening six days ago," Sango pointed out thoughtfully, leaning against the wall. She tilted her head back and gazed up at the ceiling, thinking it all over. "It—whatever _it _is—could have fled here. Sounds like it would have killed Kouga, too, if he hadn't stabbed it like he did."

"That'd be quite a coincidence," Kagome mumbled, still examining Kouga's wound. "That a monster attacked _my_ ex-boyfriend and then started killing people in a city where we were sent after it."

"I believe in Fate, not coincidence," Miroku said, a half-smile on his face. He broke off, glancing over at Inuyasha, who had pressed himself against the wall on the opposite side of the room. "What's wrong with you?"

"You smell like crap," the half-demon informed Kouga.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded, shooting him a dirty look. "He was attacked by a monster. Give him a break."

"No, you don't understand," the half-demon tried to explain, gesturing at the air wildly. After a moment, he clapped his hand to his nose like he couldn't stand smelling any longer. "You," Inuyasha said to Kouga, "smell like decay and wolves, which happen to be my two least favorite stenches."

"I called Kagome because I was hoping she could use that nurse brain of hers to figure out what was wrong with me," Kouga countered, panting heavily. "The stitches that the doctor gave me didn't do anything; it just keeps bleeding. And ever since then, I've felt weird. Feverish, angry… _possessive_. If whatever this is actually is supernatural like Kagome suggested over the phone, then I need your help. Especially from you hunter guys."

"What do you think is wrong?" Kagome whispered, smoothing her hand down the side of his face. Kouga leaned into her hand and, very softly, whimpered.

"I don't feel human anymore," he answered in a hollow voice. "I think I'm going crazy."

Someone pounded on the door, making everyone in the room jump. Miroku went to answer it, one hand on his gun. On the other side were Ginta and Hakkaku, the two wolf demons that Kagome and Inuyasha had been working with trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Hey, guys, we think we—Wow, what's that stench?" Ginta asked, coming into the room and actually pinching his nose shut with two clawed fingers. "Seriously," he continued, he voice nasally, "It smells like a dead, rotting wolf."

"Thanks," Kouga grumbled with a sarcastic smile. He pulled in a deep breath and then let it out, summoning the strength to keep talking around the pain. "I'm glad I came here. You guys are making me feel so much better."

Hakkaku came forward and leaned down to examine Kouga closer. He sniffed delicately, a disgusted expression on his face, but by far not as bad as the one on Inuyasha's. Clearly, dog demons had the more sensitive nose of the two. "You're sick," he told Kouga, actually prodding the other man in the shoulder. "What happened to you?"

"I got bit by a beast thing, and now I think I'm dying. Or mutating."

"Ah," Hakkaku hummed, peering even closer. "You smell like that thing that's attacking people… and kind of like death. Where's your tail?"

"My what?"

"Your tail," Hakkaku repeated sternly, scrutinizing Kouga's ears now. "And why aren't these pointy? They look round, like human ears."

"Probably because I'm a human," the sick man snapped.

Hakkaku and Ginta exchanged bemused looks before both started sniffing the air again.

"You're not human," Ginta said, crossing his arms stubbornly over his chest. Kagome wondered how he didn't hurt himself on the spiked leather bracelets he was wearing. "You're one of us."

"Guys, Kouga's my ex-boyfriend, not a wolf demon," Kagome corrected, frowning at them. "I think I would have known if he was a wolf demon. I mean, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed a tail when we were—"

"Don't finish that sentence," Inuyasha cut her off, looking pissed. "I mean, it's kind of personal, right?"

Kagome ignored him, putting a hand to her forehead as she thought hard about what everyone was saying. "Kouga got bit by a beast, now he smells like the monster mixed with a wolf demon. Maybe he _is _mutating!"

"I'm right here," Kouga reminded her, his voice groggy.

"Why don't you get some rest?" Kagome suggested, getting to her knees and removing his shoes for him. (In the background, Inuyasha rolled his eyes.) "In the meantime, we'll look around town and try to figure out what's going on."

"Sure," Kouga agreed mildly, slipping under the covers fully clothed and closing his eyes immediately. Kagome had never seen her hotheaded, passionate ex so compliant. She put the back of her hand to his forehead but immediately retracted it, flinching at how hot his skin was. Hopefully, it would burn itself out. The nurse in Kagome reminded her that things had to get worse before they got better, and maybe this was that low point.

Kagome gestured everyone out, and they followed her orders. Once the door was shut tightly behind her, they grouped up at the edge of the parking lot. Finally in fresh air, Inuyasha's disgusted look faded away, although he still looked upset.

"What did you come to tell us?" Miroku asked Ginta, turning to the wolf demons. They had met briefly the night before during another brainstorming session. The local wolf pack was willing to do whatever the hunters wanted in order to get rid of the threat in their own backyard. No matter what Inuyasha's problem with wolves was, the other three from the hunting party thought they seemed like good guys.

"Oh! Yeah," Ginta said, standing straighter now that he remembered that they'd shown up with an actual purpose in mind. "Hakkaku called his grandmother this morning, and she had some crazy wolf demon lore that we thought might help."

"And that is…?" Sango asked, glancing around to make sure they were alone. There was no way anyone could overhear this conversation and not freak out.

"Wolf demons believe in werewolves," Hakkaku began, holding up a hand to cut Inuyasha off before he could interrupt with his usual denial of their existance. The half-demon snapped his mouth shut, but looked murderous. "The story is that werewolves are the supernatural cousins of wolf demons."

Kagome couldn't help but interject. "Are we talking werewolves that are human except for the full moon or are we talking werewolves who are supernatural wolves twenty-four-seven, like this weird monster seems to be."

"The first one," Ginta assured her. "Shapeshifters who transform only during the three nights of the full moon. Wolf demons, however, are demons with wolf-like qualities their entire lives. Totally different."

"Oh, okay. Just making sure. With all these weird movies and books lately, it's hard to keep track of what's Hollywood and what's real," Kagome answered, waving her hand for them to continue.

"Well, centuries ago, all the werewolves started dying off because of a disease, one that didn't affect wolf demons. There's a legend that says that if an infected werewolf bites a wolf demon, it will create a horrible monster hybrid because of the disease and the mixing of their blood or whatever."

"You're suggesting that a werewolf, which are supposedly extinct, bit a wolf demon, and then the demon turned into some kind of…" Inuyasha trailed off, as exasperated as always.

"A werewolf demon!" Ginta finished for him excitedly.

"Or a demon werewolf," Hakkaku added. "We haven't decided which is a cooler way to say it. And all it would take is one werewolf to start an epidemic."

"This is so much worse than the idea of regular werewolves," the half-demon muttered. Then, unnecessarily, he added, "I really hate wolves."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"If a werewolf bites a human, that human becomes a werewolf, too," Ginta continued.

"So if a werewolf demon—or demon werewolf—bit a human, he will become—"

Immediately, Kagome cut off Hakkaku with a terrified gasp. "Oh, no, Kouga!"

Sango wrapped an arm around her best friend comfortingly, tugging Kagome in closer to give her a hug. "It's okay, we'll find a way to fix this," the brunette promised, although she really had no basis to say that.

"Well, we'll certainly try at least," Miroku added fairly. Sango shot him a dirty look, but the hunter only shrugged back at her. He may have been a great liar, but he wasn't about to give Kagome false hope. The group was coming up against something they'd never dealt with before, not even Inuyasha who had one foot in the supernatural world himself. "On the bright side, as far as we know, all the other victims are dead and eaten, not alive and infected."

"For once, I wish we could just fight a damn vampire," Inuyasha grumbled, feeling a little bad at how forlorn Kagome was acting. As much as he disliked Kouga—partly for being Kagome's ex-boyfriend, partly for smelling like a mangy wolf—it still tugged at his heartstrings. "Seriously, vampires are the easiest. You just stake them through the heart or behead them."

"It is a fairly simple process," Miroku agreed, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I vote we go after a vampire next. It'll be a nice change of pace."

"Well, before we do that, we'll have to kill the demon werewolf," Sango pointed out bitterly.

"Werewolf demon," both Ginta and Hakkaku corrected her simultaneously.

"Yeah, that," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "Maybe if we kill it, it will save Kouga. So how are we going to do it?"

In unison, everyone turned to Miroku.

"Why do I always have to come up with the plans?" he demanded, for once losing control of his control.

"You're the brains, he's the brawn," Sango reminded him, jerking her thumb at Inuyasha.

They were interrupted when the motel door slammed open, and Kouga appeared. In the twenty minutes since they'd left him alone, something had obviously happened; he was no longer pale, no longer sweaty, and his eyes—which had always been blue—were now a piercing, icy color. Perhaps most importantly was the fact that his ears were pointier, and—

Dear god, he had a tail.

"That's it, I am killing this thing," he growled, slamming the door shut with enough force that the windows of their room and the rooms on either side rattled.

"You're looking better," Kagome pointed out optimistically, sniffling. His cheeks had color again, and he was moving like he had all the energy in the world. Other than the pointy ears, the piercing eyes, and the (gulp) tail, he looked like his old athletic, healthy, attractive self.

"Definitely less dead looking," Sango offered.

"And wolfier," Inuyasha finished, looking the man over with distaste.

"At least I don't smell like a wet dog," Kagome's ex-boyfriend bit back. Oh, jeeze, with the increased energy came increased aggression. "And I don't like the way you've been looking at me since I showed up. In fact, I don't like the way you've been looking at my Kagome either."

"_Your_ Kagome?" his ex-girlfriend echoed, vaguely recalling something about Kouga saying he felt more possessive. With a squeak, she found herself pulled from Sango's arms and nestled under Kouga's chin instead.

"I feel great," Kouga told her excitedly. "Seriously, I feel like I could punch a brick wall."

"Please don't," she replied with a sniff, trying to detract herself from his grip. "Okay, I think we should split up to hunt down the werewolf demon."

"Demon werew—"

"We got it," Sango cut Ginta off quickly. It was almost as bad as Inuyasha's mantra of, _There's no such thing as werewolves! _She could still hear him in her head. "How about Kagome and I go with the wolf demons, and you three go together?" she suggested, splitting them up based on who was standing next to whom—except for Kagome. Sango just didn't like how grabby Kouga was suddenly acting; he hadn't been that handsy even when the two were officially dating.

"I want Kagome," Kouga argued unsurprisingly.

"And I'm going nowhere with any wolf," Inuyasha countered as well.

Pleadingly, Sango looked to Miroku.

"How about this, I will take the wolf demons and Kouga to investigate the site where Sango and I were attacked, while Inuyasha and the girls try a different section of the city. Maybe the wolves' noses can pick up on a scent that Inuyasha's missed."

Naturally, Inuyasha glared at his best friend. He had the best nose out of anyone. Ever.

"I," Kouga growled angrily, "am in Kagome's group."

Defeated, Miroku held his hands up peacefully and shrugged at Sango. The disease was spreading through Kouga rapidly, making him aggressive and confrontational—maybe it would be a good thing for him to be in a group with Inuyasha, who was the only one strong enough to stop him if the transformation became too much for the former human. Plus, having Kagome around might calm Kouga down—or, on the other hand, it might cause even worse problems. They wouldn't know for sure until it happened.

They split up, Miroku's group taking the SUV (which, thankfully, had not been dented or scratched during the wolf pack's 'greeting') while the others took off on foot.

The sun wouldn't be going down for a few more hours, so they stuck to back alleys and shadowy walkways. Sango carefully kept herself between Kagome and Kouga, who was starting to become a little too intense, while Inuyasha led the way, muttering to himself.

He knew wolves were trouble. People really should start listening to him from now on.

Night fell soon enough; since it was almost winter, sundown was late afternoon. Over the several hours they wandered the city (coming up with absolutely nothing helpful), Kouga became more and more spirited. After eight days of suffering, he was bouncing back awfully fast.

"Why do you think that is?" Kagome asked Sango in a hushed voice after pointing out her observation.

Her best friend frowned, indicating that she'd actually been thinking about the exact same thing. "I don't think you'll like this."

"Like what?"

"I think… I think the closer we get to the full moon, the closer he is to a full transformation into the monster. It sounds like this werewolf demon—or demon werewolf—is a monster all the time, possibly because of the disease, but maybe the moon is still a powerful force in deciding when an infected person becomes one."

Surprised, Kagome actually stumbled mid-step. Sango caught her, but it drew the attention of the men, who were several yards ahead. The brunette waved them off, and they reluctantly kept walking after both looked Kagome over with concern.

"The full moon is tomorrow night," Kagome hissed as soon as they were gone—she hoped they were out of earshot, but with those demonically enhanced ears of theirs, she couldn't be sure.

"It's going to be okay," Sango promised again, sounding even less sure than before.

When they caught up to the men, they unsurprisingly found the two bickering.

"Why don't you just pee on a building corner," Inuyasha was saying gruffly, gesturing at a nearby bank. "Maybe if you claim some of the monster's territory, it'll come after you."

"That's just stupid," Kouga spat back. "Dogs pee to mark their territory just as often as wolves do."

"Wow," Sango muttered. "I think I see why you broke up with Kouga all those months ago."

"It was a mutual break up," Kagome mumbled, looking back and forth between the men with wide eyes. Seriously, what was it with dogs and wolves? She thought they were related! Would Inuyasha be better or worse with a cat demon? "And Kouga didn't use to be like this. This is like… Kouga on steroids or something. Stronger, faster, and way more possessive."

"Just wait until he's covered in fur," her best friend joked wryly, grinning. She then did a fake purr-growl low in her throat that made Kagome laugh.

Kagome stopped laughing, however, when someone less than a block away let out a blood curdling scream.

"That's our cue!" Inuyasha shouted, taking off in a run with Kouga right on his heels. The girls followed, albeit at a much slower pace.

"What are you going to do when we get there?" Kagome called after him, already starting to pant. If she was going to continue monster hunting, she needed to start working out. "We never agreed on how to kill it!"

Too late. Inuyasha was already around the corner.

"I've been thinking," Sango answered Kagome instead, her brow furrowed in a crease. "It got hurt when Kouga stabbed it and Miroku shot it, so obviously it can feel pain, right? Like that centipede monster back at the hospital, not like the creepy ghost child. I think this is another monster we can kill if we can do enough physical damage to it."

"Well, sorry," Kagome wheezed, stumbling to a walk and clutching at a cramp in her side. Seriously, this was just sad. Sango power-walked beside her friend, looking intently in the direction in which the men had disappeared. She was one of those people who went for a two mile jog every morning back when the girls were still living in the city. "I forgot my chainsaw," Kagome finished weakly.

Finally, they turned the corner and spotted Inuyasha, Kouga, and the werewolf demon. They were all facing off in a circle, looking like a bad horror film—except for the gutted woman at the monster's feet, that is. Kagome winced and turned away. That corpse was most definitely top-notch. Sure, she'd seen some gross things as a nurse, but there were entrails and innards lying in a steaming pile on the sidewalk. It was enough to turn anyone's stomach.

Kouga was standing like a boxer while Inuyasha had brought out the cannon he called a shotgun. The beast, of course, had fangs and claws as its weapons. With its freakishly large paw, it swiped at the two men. When it missed, it tore into the street, leaving behind four deep gouges.

"See? This is why I really think we need guns at all times," Sango pointed out in an exasperated voice. Kagome was beginning to worry about the way the brunette was more irritated than scared; her best friend was taking to monster hunting like a fish took to water. "Inuyasha!" Sango yelled to the half-demon. "Kagome and I decided that you should find a way to just rip this thing apart! If it's in enough pieces, wouldn't that stop just about anything?"

"Yeah, I guess that's pretty much what we decided," Kagome agreed, clasping a hand over her mouth to smother a gag. (She'd looked at the innards again.)

Keeping their distance from the fight, Sango pulled out her cell phone and had a rushed conversation with Miroku, who promised to be there with Ginta and Hakkaku as soon as he could. Unfortunately, they were across the city. As she hung up, Sango once again noticed that the street was oddly empty. Seriously, shouldn't there be dozens of screaming citizens running away? Or was there some sort of unspoken rule that when something supernatural was going on, unless you were a victim, no one was ever around?

"I will kill you!" Kouga shouted, drawing Sango's attention, as he rushed at the monster with his bare hands. His eyes were wild and feverish, not altogether sane. With each passing moment, he looked less and less human.

Smothering a scream, Kagome clapped her hands over her mouth and watched with wide blue eyes as the werewolf demon turned on her ex-boyfriend. Kouga deftly dodged its first swipe, but he caught the second in his lower back. Slumping to the ground, the man stopped moving. Kagome started forward, but managed to hold herself back at the last second.

Getting in the middle of things would only make it worse.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha pumped his shotgun and held it out, shooting at the back of the monster's head. It landed in the shoulder instead, tearing into the muscle. Clumps of bloody fur fell to the pavement. With a pained howl, the beast disappeared into a nearby hedge—

Only to burst back out yards further down, directly behind the half-demon.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, pointing over his shoulder.

Inuyasha spun around only to catch a swipe to the face. The force threw him back several feet where he landed on his side, blood streaming from his forehead. Struggling to his hands and knees, they all realized with horror that he'd dropped his shotgun.

"Oh god, oh god," Kagome mumbled, wrenching herself loose from Sango and running toward the fray. She was too far away; she'd never make it in time.

Sango chased after her, tackling Kagome from behind to take her down to the pavement before she ran right into another attack from the monster. It turned its attention away from Inuyasha and on them instead. There was blood everywhere, and the girls landed in a sticky puddle of it.

Thinking quickly, the brunette shoved her best friend away—Kagome rolled several feet, tucking her arms in close to her sides—while Sango jumped in the other direction. Just like when she'd been attacked with Miroku, the beast landed right where the girls had been crouched less than a second after they moved.

"Hey, freak!" Inuyasha shouted angrily, scowling from where he was sitting with one hand pressed against his face. Blood was pumping quickly from the gash over his eye, and his fingers were completely coated with it. "Demonic wolf offspring _bastard_!" he yelled again, a rather creative insult for him.

Slowly, the hulking figure turned to face the half-demon, giving the girls enough time to pick themselves up off the street. The beast stalked toward Inuyasha, moving in a semi-circle, keeping its distance as though sensing the hunter was about to attack.

Grinning madly, Inuyasha pulled his hand away from his head and arched his fingers, blood dripping from his own claws.

"Gotcha," he told it triumphantly, cracking his knuckles just before swiping at the air. The blood flew from his hands, solidified in mid-air into great red arcs, and then collided with the werewolf demon even as it launched itself at Inuyasha. A pained yelp tore itself from its throat, deep and angry enough to send shivers down Kagome's spine, as it dropped to the street.

Not taking any chances, Inuyasha clawed at his own face again, making the women wince, and threw another barrage of—

If Kagome had to call them something, she'd call them blades made out of blood.

These tore into the immobile beast, filleting it where it lay. Fur flew everywhere, and when it settled, the monster wasn't breathing anymore.

Limping only a little, Sango dragged herself over to the corpse. Jerking away, she turned to Kagome with a frown. "He actually tore it into pieces with those—those blood things."

"How'd you do that?" Kagome gasped, getting to her own feet and running to the half-demon, reaching her hand out. Gently, she lifted his heavy white bangs and studied the claw marks carved into his forehead. She bit her lip, getting so close that her nose actually brushed his cheek, and he shivered from the feel of her warm breath on his face. "We need to get these cleaned up right away."

"I'll heal fast," he muttered, shrugging her off. As soon as she removed her hand, his stomach did a weird fluttery thing that he didn't like at all. "And being a demon doesn't just give me funny ears," he explained in a low voice. "I get other…"

"Gifts," Kagome finished for him, actually smiling.

He openly stared at her, wondering just how this girl made him feel so warm inside by only saying simple words. Neither of them noticed as Kouga propped himself up on his elbows a few yards away, looking at the pair with an empty expression—if there was any way to remind a man that his relationship was over, it was seeing his ex-girlfriend look at another guy with that kind of expression on her face.

Actually, Kouga realized, he wasn't sure Kagome had ever looked at _him _quite that way.

"Well, crap," Sango grumbled, jolting Kouga into remembering that there was a fourth person present. "You still have a tail."

"Really?" he replied faintly, looking over at the hulking corpse of the werewolf demon. Demon werewolf? The moment it had stopped breathing, he'd snapped awake, feeling better than he had since before the attack. In fact, he'd never felt so strong—he also felt a lot less delusional and amped up than he had since his brief nap; he felt more like himself. If 'himself' had had a tail, that is. With baited breath, Kouga looked to his hands—he had claws, too. His hearing and smell were still heightened. "I don't think we fixed me."

Kagome looked away from Inuyasha, a little relieved that there was something to distract her from the odd way the hunter was studying her. "Oh, Kouga," she murmured, again getting to her feet in order to come to her ex's side. "Sango and I were worried that it was the full moon tomorrow night that was quickening your transformation."

Within moments, Inuyasha was standing beside her. With a frown, he looked down at Kouga and sniffed the man—which, of course, made them both slightly uncomfortable. "You smell like a wolf demon," the hunter told Kouga bluntly. "You're definitely not human anymore."

Worried she might cry, Kagome turned her eyes to her feet. They hadn't been able to save Kouga after all.

"Except…" All three turned to Inuyasha once more at his hesitant voice, watching as he wrinkled his nose in concentration. "You don't smell sick either, and you don't smell like that werewolf thing. I think… I think the transformation _did_ stop; I just think we weren't able to reverse it by killing the monster that bit you."

"I'm stuck as a wolf demon," Kouga summed up, looking down at his clawed hands dejectedly. "What am I going to do now?"

A car door slammed nearby.

"You can stay with us!" someone shouted.

The four looked down the street and found Miroku, Ginta, and Hakkaku approaching. All three eyed the corpse as they passed, looking disappointed that they'd missed the fight.

"Yeah," Ginta agreed with Hakkaku's invitation, looking excited—kind of, Kagome thought, like a dog about to play fetch or ride in the car. "We'll teach you how to be a wolf demon! It'll be _awesome._"

"I feel like you just joined a fraternity," Kagome joked weakly, reaching down and grabbing her ex-boyfriend by the shoulder. She gave him a reassuring squeeze, trying her best to look optimistic and supportive. "I think it would be good for you."

"Yeah?" Kouga asked, peering up into her face.

"Definitely," Kagome answered sincerely, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek. "I think you just found yourself a new family."

* * *

><p>The next morning, the group finished loading all of their bags into the SUV. It had been the longest time yet that they'd stayed in one place, but Inuyasha's phone was already buzzing with calls from Sesshoumaru—there were more jobs waiting for them.<p>

Miroku and Sango climbed into the backseat and stretched out, hoping to get a nap in while Inuyasha drove and Kagome navigated.

Standing next to the car in the parking lot, Inuyasha surveyed the city around them. The group had managed to cart off and set fire to the monster's body with help from the local wolf pack, but there was no amount of water that could wash away all that blood. Plus, there was kind of that dead woman they'd stumbled across during the final battle that couldn't be easily cleaned up. At the very least, the killings would stop now, even if the local police didn't understand why.

"This is why I hate wolves," Inuyasha pointed out stubbornly. Overnight, the gashes in his forehead had healed completely, much to Kagome's disbelief. "They're mutating scumbags!"

"I'm pretty sure this all was just a freak accident," Kagome placated him. "At least we killed it, right? If you were so certain before that werewolves didn't exist, they must be really rare. We'll just track down the werewolf that bit the wolf demon who started all this, and then everything will be fixed."

"…Except for your ex. He's screwed."

"He's not screwed!" Kagome argued hotly, punching the half-demon in the arm. He didn't even flinch. "Kouga's just not human anymore. If that were enough to scare me away, I wouldn't even bother to talk to you anymore, now would I?"

A beat passed and Inuyasha looked at her with an odd expression on his face; the girl fidgeted under his scrutiny. "You really aren't freaked out by demons?" he asked finally; his upper lip twitched, and Kagome wondered if he was fighting off a smile.

"Not when they have tails," she said. For some reason, that made the hunter's face fall, so Kagome quickly backpedaled. "Or, you know, cute little puppy ears."

"They're not puppy ears," he snapped at her automatically, but his cheeks had the barest hint of pink. "Just shut up and let's go find this werewolf. It sure as hell better be easier to kill than its bastard demon offspring."

"Hey! Since we discovered a new species, doesn't that mean we get to name it?"

"Whatever," Inuyasha muttered, opening the car door for Kagome to climb inside. "I guess."

"Okay, then I suggest—"

Inuyasha held up a hand to cut her off. "I suggest we call it 'The Kagome.' There's nothing scarier than that."

In response, Kagome tried to hit him again. This time, however, she put enough force behind her punch that she actually tumbled off the passenger seat when he dodged her. She would have fallen to the ground if Inuyasha hadn't caught her around the shoulders, pulling her to safety.

"Hey," he scolded, holding her to his chest for several seconds too long. "Be careful there."

"Yeah, sure," she replied faintly, avoiding meeting his eyes. All her irritation had evaporated.

Minutes later, they were back on the road. In the backseat, Miroku and Sango shared a knowing look, having witnessed the entire exchange.


	5. Thespian

I bought a car. No joke. D: And college started back up.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Thespian

* * *

><p>The dampness had begun to soak through Kagome's jacket and into her shirt; she regretted pressing her back to the decaying wall, but it was too late to change positions now. It had been over half an hour, but her eyes still couldn't adjust to the darkness in the basement. The only light was dim and far away—moonlight pushing through a hole in the roof far above her. With its help, all she could make out were the outlines of overturned tables and discarded chairs.<p>

At least she wasn't alone.

With an agonized groan, Inuyasha shifted and pushed his cheek harder against one of her upturned knees. His eyelids fluttered but didn't open. It had been hard for them to find a comfortable position on the floor, considering all the piles of junk that had been left to rot in the dank theater basement. He'd also been sort of unconscious, so it had taken Kagome several minutes to clear a spot big enough to sit cross-legged and then drag him over to lie in her lap.

If Kagome closed her eyes and listened real hard, she thought she could hear Miroku and Sango continuing the investigation on the third floor without them.

The plan was to find a safe way down to their trapped partners, a way that didn't include any more collapsed floors like the one that had led to Kagome's unexpected plunge of thirty feet—one she only survived thanks to Inuyasha's quick reflexes.

Until the other two found usable stairs, Kagome was supposed to just wait.

Absentmindedly, she stroked the half-demon's hair, which lay loose around his shoulders. It had escaped the braid she'd forced it into that morning—it seemed silly to her for a man to wear his hair that long. Sango and Kagome carefully kept their own long hair pulled back into ponytails, afraid that it might get caught on something while exploring or during a fight.

Inuyasha, the stubborn brat, insisted on leaving his loose except for when he had to stuff it all under a baseball hat in public. Thankfully, he blended in well with normal people as long as his hair and ears were hidden. His fangs and oddly colored eyes were easy to miss as long as he didn't purposely draw attention to himself.

Kagome choked back a laugh, remembering that with his mouth open or not, people seemed to notice Inuyasha. When he was yelling (which was often), people stopped to stare. When he wasn't even talking, women couldn't help slowing down to check him out. What could she say? The man looked good in a pair of jeans. Plus, even under all the layers of clothes he put on—a t-shirt covered by an unbuttoned button-up covered by a heavy jacket—it was obvious that he was well-built.

"Ka…" he moaned, shifting in his sleep again. He was pale and obviously in pain, but he already looked better than he had half an hour ago.

"Shhh," she hushed him soothingly, petting his bangs and trying to avoid the massive gash down the side of his face even though it was already healing shut, right before her eyes. "We'll get out soon."

Or at least she hoped so.

* * *

><p><em>8 Hours Earlier<em>

"I can't believe you put it in the car with us," Kagome complained, opting to breathe through her mouth instead of her nose to avoid the stench of the rotting corpse in the SUV's backseat.

"Sesshoumaru demanded proof that we killed it," Inuyasha reminded her. For once, he wasn't driving. Instead he was lounging in the passenger seat with his feet up on the dashboard. Miroku was the one behind the wheel.

"So we have to cart around an entire werewolf body with us?" Kagome snapped. "It's leaking gelatinous _goo_, Inuyasha."

Sango twisted around and peered over the headrest, spotting the wolf-like snout peeking out from under the tarp. "It is pretty gross," the brunette agreed. "Then again, it was just as gross before you shot it. You know, all diseased and stuff."

"It was probably going to die soon any way," Miroku pointed out thoughtfully, turning off the highway and onto an unmarked paved road. "Ginta and Hakkaku did say that werewolves died out thanks to some werewolf disease. We're lucky it didn't bite anyone else before it started to die from the sickness."

"You mean, lucky that it bit no one other than the wolf demon that turned into the giant, horrific, creepy monster that devoured a ton of people?" Kagome clarified.

"Exactly. See what I mean? Lucky."

"What are you going to tell your brother?" Sango asked Inuyasha, turning away from the corpse and facing front again. "I mean, we know this one's dead, but where there's one werewolf, there's got to be more. I mean, who turned him into one to begin with? It's even weirder since they are supposed to be extinct."

"Why are you asking me?" the half-demon snapped impatiently. "I didn't even think they existed. We'll just let Sesshoumaru deal with the fall-out. He has people to clean up messes; all we worry about is hunting." Inuyasha glared out the window at the passing countryside. They'd been driving for three days straight since tracking and killing the werewolf. They were very close to his half-brother.

It sucked.

"I can't believe we get to meet Sesshoumaru!" Kagome cheerfully changed the subject, practically bouncing in her seat with excitement.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Inuyasha surprised her by saying. "He hates humans. Even Miroku's never met him face-to-face, and we've been out here dozens of times for meetings."

"I have to wait in the car," Miroku explained, trying hard to look as if this didn't bother him.

"Well, that bites," Sango grumbled, not evening noticing the pun after an entire conversation about werewolves. "I was hoping we got to meet this badass demon lord guy. Does he even know we're traveling with you?"

"Sesshoumaru knows _everything_," the half-demon said secretively (and a little bitterly). "Seriously, he must have spies everywhere. Which is how I know that if there are any other werewolves out there, they won't be alive much longer. We need to focus on our next hunt instead of last week's."

"Brawn not brains," Sango whispered to Kagome. They both giggled.

After several more minutes, Miroku started to slow down before pulling in a driveway in front of an enormous building. Upon closer inspection, the women noticed the intricate brickwork, massive columns, and iron balconies. It was a huge mansion out in the middle of nowhere—so very mysterious. It was both exciting and a little creepy at the same time.

"He doesn't like visitors," Inuyasha muttered by way of an explanation, undoing his seat belt and opening the passenger door.

The three humans followed his lead, piling out of the car just as he retrieved the corpse from the back of the SUV. Holding the (ew) leaking body wrapped in a tarp, the half-demon turned toward the front door.

"Wait!" Kagome called after him, running to his side.

"What?"

"Your hair's a mess," she scolded, combing her fingers through his hair before he could stop her and rapidly braiding it with practiced movements. She took out her own hair tie to secure the end of the braid, letting it fall back down to rest between his shoulder blades. "There!"

Inuyasha slid her a non-appreciative look. "Seriously? I really don't care if I look presentable—especially for this asshole."

"He's a lord!" Kagome reminded him, propping closed fists on her hips in the classic female pose of _I am not backing down from this, so deal with it_. Just as Inuyasha opened his mouth to argue with her, Kagome told him, "I think it looks good on you."

Thoroughly embarrassed, the half-demon snapped his mouth shut, sent her one last exasperated look, and then climbed the front steps. Kagome, Sango, and Miroku watched as he awkwardly rang the doorbell with his elbow (his hands were full) and then as it was opened by the weirdest creature Kagome had ever seen. That was saying a lot, considering all she'd been through in the past month. It was only about waist high with green skin and large yellow eyes.

"That's Jaken," Miroku whispered, gesturing at the creepy little thing. "I think he's a frog or a toad demon. Maybe an imp? He hates humans even more that Sesshoumaru does, so I avoid talking to him. Or looking at him. Or, well, even thinking about him."

"How long do these meetings usually take?" Sango wondered aloud, standing on her tip-toes in the driveway, hoping to see something through the windows; unfortunately, all the curtains were drawn.

"Not long," Miroku answered, leaning against the car casually. "I think it's physically painful for those two to be in the same room with each other for more than five minutes. Hopefully Inuyasha won't say anything rash, and Sesshoumaru won't do anything unwarranted."

"Like what?"

"Like try to kill Inuyasha," the hunter replied nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal. "That happened once. It was awful, and I didn't even see it—but the noises… An entire wing of the house collapsed."

"Where exactly are we?" Kagome questioned, peering around at the non-descript landscape like she'd find one of those maps seen in malls with a giant arrow with the words 'You are here!' on it.

"About four hours north of where we first met on the Naraku hunt, near a little city named Riverside."

"Oh," she said thoughtfully, biting her bottom lip in a way that made Sango nervous. The brunette recognized that look; it meant Kagome had thought up some harebrained scheme and was trying to come up with a good way to sell it. "Did you know—"

"Kagome," Sango interrupted, sensing trouble.

Miroku looked back and forth between the women, trying to gauge what was happening.

"There's this amazing little theater in Riverside that I've always wanted to check out," Kagome powered on quickly over Sango's protest, turning pleading eyes on Miroku. "It's supposed to be amazing—three floors and a basement, over eighty years old. I've always wanted to photograph it!"

"Don't let her fool you," Sango warned Miroku. "Kagome says that about a lot of abandoned buildings. It won't kill her to miss this one."

"But I haven't taken _any _photographs since we first joined up with you," Kagome pointed out stubbornly. "Please? All I'm asking for is two or three hours, and then I won't ask for something like this for at least another month."

"That sounds like a good bargain," the hunter responded, considering the two women. "How about this—if Sesshoumaru doesn't give us a new assignment, then we can take a little detour to Riverside."

Kagome actually cheered.

Which is how Inuyasha found her thirty seconds later when he wandered out of the mansion's front door, rubbing at a spot on his shirt. (It looked disgustingly like congealed blood to the others.) "Why are you so excited? What'd I miss?"

Instead of answering his question, Kagome whirled on him and asked one of her own. "What did Sesshoumaru say?" Her words came out in a rush.

"Not much, like usual," the half-demon mumbled, coming to stand in front of them. He'd given up on getting rid of the stain.

"No new assignments?" Kagome clarified, leaning forward to peer up at him.

Dumbfounded by her attention, the half-demon took his time answering, looking down at the girl. The way the sun hit Kagome made her long hair—now loose after giving her hair tie to him—look shinier and her eyes look bluer. God, she was cute. "No," Inuyasha answered slowly, tearing his eyes away to look around at the others.

"Yay! We're going to Riverside!"

Perplexed, Inuyasha turned accusing eyes on Miroku. "See? This is why I don't leave you alone with women!"

* * *

><p>Kagome positively beamed at the looming building in front of them. The sun was just starting to set, so its slanting rays backlit the old theater with dark orange and red light. Within a few minutes, it would turn purple before, finally, the velvety blue of nighttime. Adjusting the focus on her camera, she took another shot, capturing the dark silhouette against the warm backdrop of the sunset.<p>

The outside wasn't very impressive—while the building had probably been beautiful in its heyday, it was showing signs of neglect. The windows on the bottom floor were all boarded up while most of the ones on the upper two levels had been shattered by teenagers throwing rocks through them. Graffiti covered everything within reach.

The padlocks, however, on the two theater entrances were still secure, so Kagome had high hopes for the innards being in decent shape.

The theater had been built into a hillside on the edge of Riverside, a town almost but not quite in the country. One entrance led into the front lobby on the ground floor, but Kagome had led the hunters and Sango around to the back entrance, up on the hill, that led to the third floor. The actual stage was in the hollowed-out heart of the building. The rest consisted of three floors of hallways and little rooms, while the basement was for storage.

She took another photo, loving the way the orange light was starting to bleed into violet as the sun ducked below the horizon. Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango stood several feet away, keeping watch. They were far enough away from downtown Riverside that pedestrians wouldn't spot trespassers, but there had already been two police cars that had driven by, patrolling for vandals.

To the hunters' surprise (but not Sango's), Kagome Goody-Two-Shoes Higurashi totally dismissed the fact that breaking in was illegal—and therefore immoral.

"We're not going to destroy or steal anything," she'd reminded them. "I just want to take some pictures. Nothing wrong with that!"

Now, Kagome was continuing to take picture after picture of the dilapidated outside. When she reached inside her bag for her tripod, Inuyasha leapt forward with a look of annoyance on his face.

"I think it's time we head inside," he suggested, ushering her toward the door with another look over his shoulder to see if there were any police cars circling. He swept up her duffel bag full of equipment and tossed it over his shoulder.

"Be careful with that!" Kagome shouted protectively, reaching for it.

The half-demon held the bag out of reach. "It's heavy; I've got it."

"Fine," she relented, but with a pout. "Be _gentle_. That stuff's expensive."

"We'll just buy you new equipment if anything gets broken," Miroku promised, moving ahead of the pair so he could begin picking the lock on the door.

"I've been meaning to ask about that," Sango said, bringing up the rear. "How do you guys pay for stuff when you don't have real jobs?"

Inuyasha and Miroku exchanged shady looks that didn't exactly instill confidence in the girls. "Sesshoumaru provides monthly funding," Inuyasha told them finally, not meeting their eyes. "He owns a lot of legitimate businesses around the country, so he's pretty rich."

"And that covers all the expenses? I mean, gas alone for all these road trips has to cost an arm and a leg," the brunette pointed out with a frown. "And if Sesshoumaru 'funds' a lot of hunters, can he really afford to give everyone enough money to cover everything?"

A beat passed before Miroku glanced at her, a lie ready on the tip of his tongue. "About that—"

Inuyasha interrupted him. "Miroku cons rich people," the half-demon divulged in a stage whisper, not without a small glimmer of amusement from telling his best friend's dirty secret.

"He does _what_?" Sango demanded, unsurprisingly scandalized.

"When we're low on cash, he convinces people that their houses are haunted, and then performs an 'exorcism' for a fee," Inuyasha explained, ignoring the betrayed expression on his friend's face.

Miroku turned away from the lock and looked pleadingly at the two women, his handsome face begging them to understand. (The charlatan!) "Sometimes there really are ghosts!" he defended himself, sounding as innocent as he possibly could considering the situation.

"Sometimes?" Kagome echoed, struggling to hide her grin. She wasn't exactly the most law-abiding citizen either. Then again, she'd never cheat some poor grandparent by scaring them for money.

"You two are going to hell," her best friend told the hunters sternly.

Nonplussed, Inuyasha shrugged at the threat. Even Miroku didn't look too concerned.

"Any other money we need, Inuyasha wins in underground, illegal gambling rings," Miroku added, turning back to the door, snapping off the padlock, and undoing the massive chain barring their entrance. Miroku grinned at Inuyasha; they were officially even.

"I feel so good about myself, helping people like you," Sango mumbled sarcastically, shooting a look at Kagome. It was all her fault for getting them involved with a couple of criminals. At least they were criminals who killed monsters and saved lives…

"Alright, come on, you guys. I've got work to do," Kagome reminded everyone, slipping past Miroku and shoving the door open herself. She took a step inside, pausing to let her eyes adjust to the heavy darkness—the faint light drifting in through the windows wouldn't last long, so she pulled out a flashlight to light the way.

"Flashlight," Inuyasha scoffed, stepping in close beside her. His nose wrinkled at the smell of rot, but he didn't voice any complaints.

"What, you can see in the dark?" Sango asked, pushing past him to venture a little further into the hallway. "Like a cat?"

"Not like a cat," Miroku corrected, tossing a playful glance at the half-demon. "Like a dog demon. Very different."

"Oh, I'm so sure," Sango replied airily, grinning herself. "Let's explore!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kagome reached out and snagged Sango's jacket, pulling the brunette back toward her. "Before we start moving around, I want to remind you guys that this building was constructed over eighty years ago, and it's been abandoned for over a quarter of a century. Floorboards are weak, so step lightly, and use a flashlight to make sure you're not about to plunge into a giant hole."

"Okay, I'll be careful," Sango promised, pulling her arm from her best friend's grip. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her own flashlight, a little thing that barely lit up the floor two feet in front of her. "Where to, captain?"

"The theater itself," the other woman directed, pointing down the hall. There was a sign hung up opposite them; even with half the letters missing, the group could tell that it was used long ago to direct patrons to their seats. "I want to see the stage. Since we're up here, we should be able to find the balconies."

With that, Kagome took the lead. Inuyasha walked close behind her, one hand held out, hovering over the small of her back ready to help guide her if needed. Miroku and Sango brought up the rear, walking side by side. Every once in awhile, they would waggle their eyebrows at each other—they already had a bet going on how long it would be before something of the romantic variety happened between the other two.

They took two right turns and then a left, Kagome stopping only once to caution them to walk closer to the walls instead of in the middle of the floor where the floorboards sagged a little.

"Here," she said excitedly, halting the group before a set of double doors—one was hanging off its hinges. "This should be one of the balconies."

The girl pushed at the door that looked like it was still in okay shape, but it wouldn't budge. Inuyasha reached over her shoulder and shoved it himself. With a groan, it gave, scraping across the wooden floor to open up on a pair of musty drapes. Kagome rushed over the threshold, forgetting her own cautious words, and started to bat away at the dank, dusty velvet—

Then she froze.

Nearly bumping into her, Inuyasha held himself back just in time, reaching a hand out behind him to gesture Miroku and Sango back.

"What's up?" the half-demon asked, seeing Kagome's shoulders tense.

"Do you hear that?"

Furrowing his brow, Inuyasha tilted his head until one ear was facing what should be the stage far below. Faintly at first, but more so as he concentrated, he could hear something massive moving around on the first floor, way below them, among the theater seats.

"Yeah, I hear it," he muttered, unhappily.

"You don't think it's another centipede demon, do you? It sounds like it's slithering, like that freaky monster in the hospital."

"What's going on?" Miroku asked, his own voice hushed as he crept forward.

"There's something down there," Kagome told him, her hand still held out in front of her to part the drapery. "It sounds big."

"Inuyasha?" the other hunter asked, focusing on the half-demon. In the dark, all the human could make out was his white hair.

Eyes closed in concentration, Inuyasha listened to the distant scraping sounds, trying to imagine the thing that was making them. "It's not like the centipede—it's big and sliding across the floor, but it's like… like a huge mass, not shaped like a snake. That's all I got."

"I guess we have no choice. We should take a look," Kagome concluded, ducking through the drapes before the men could stop her. She bent low to the ground and moved down the narrow aisle between two groups of chairs. Skulking to the railing, she peeked over the top, hoping to see what was moving around far below them, hoping it was just a really big animal or something equally harmless and not scary.

There were no windows in the theater itself since that would cause problems during a play. Thankfully, though, the roof had begun to give directly over the stage, allowing some light to force its way through the pitch blackness.

Holding her breath, Kagome studied the sea of seats on the ground floor, spread out in front of an orchestra pit and an old stage. Immediately, she noticed there was something down there, but she couldn't make out the shape of it. A huge shadow, darker than the darkness around it, was moving through the chairs—undulating, almost like it was liquid or moving fabric. There was one small oval of white at one end, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

Trying to look closer, Kagome pulled herself up and over the railing several inches—

It snapped in her hand.

Surprised, Kagome squeaked and slapped a hand over her mouth too late.

The thing halted before slowly, so very slowly, the white oval turned in her direction. Even at that distance, Kagome thought she could see the shape of two dark eyes and one dark mouth. The figure trembled and then sucked in on itself, yards of blackness that Kagome couldn't identify all moving into a central spot under the weird, white face.

"Oh, crap," she whispered, realizing that whatever the thing was, was about to jump at her. Could it really reach her on a balcony thirty feet up in the air?

Not waiting to find out, Kagome spun around and darted back to the hallway.

"Move, move, move!" she shouted, flying by her three startled friends.

"What was it?" Sango demanded, taking off after her best friend. The men followed, each already pulling out their guns and combat knives and whatever other weapons they had hidden about their persons.

"I don't know!" Kagome yelled over her shoulder, skidding around a corner. In her panic, she couldn't remember the way back outside.

There was a thunderous crash somewhere behind them that shook the floor beneath their feet, and the three humans stumbled while the half-demon whirled around to figure out what had happened. A cloud of dust seeped down the hallway, and it was obvious something had collapsed. The balcony, maybe, under the weight of the monster?

"It wasn't an animal, and it definitely wasn't human," Kagome hollered, taking the time to finally look around herself. The walls were covered in peeling paint, and there was an exit sign barely hanging from the ceiling. There was no way to tell which way the arrow used to point. "It was like a blob or something. And its face was really creepy, almost like a mask."

"A… mask?" Miroku echoed, checking his gun to count the number of bullets that were in it. He didn't have any extras on him. This wasn't supposed to be a hunt, just a leisurely stroll through an abandoned building while Kagome did her urban exploration thing. He was beginning to think the girl drew trouble to her like a magnet.

"Yeah, like a carved wooden mask," Kagome insisted, spinning around in a full circle. The beam of her little flashlight swept the walls, leaving everything else in darkness. Even though the others couldn't see the expression on her face, they could hear the alarm in her voice. Hallways stretched everywhere, and there were several doors. Should she try one of them?

Another crash rattled the building, and the wall next to Sango buckled inward with a groan. With a scream she couldn't help emitting, the brunette backed away and ran into Miroku's chest in the darkness. The hunter steadied her by the elbow.

"A mask doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of before," Miroku admitted, looking back toward where he was sure Inuyasha was. It was nearly pitch black except for where the girls' flashlights threw dull yellow light. "My best guess is that it was an old prop that was possessed by the spirit of someone who died here."

It was suddenly very quiet.

Until something burst through the floor halfway down the hallway to their right.

Half fearfully, half resigned, Kagome directed the flashlight at her feet just in time to see a long, black tendril wrap around one of her ankles. With a yank, she fell to the ground, jostling her elbow and cracking the back of her head against the floor. Even through the fabric of her jeans and socks, she could feel coldness press against her flesh, and suddenly it was dragging her across the floor toward the hole the monster had created further down the hallway.

"_Help_!" she screamed, clawing at the ground, hoping to get a hold of something to hang on to. She dropped her flashlight, and it rolled away toward the wall. Without any light to help her at all, Kagome could only hear doom rushing toward her—or, well, she was rushing toward it.

Which was when the floor collapsed, a weak spot of the hallway giving way under her weight before she even reached the monster.

Screaming, Kagome plunged through, and the tendrils wrapped around her ankles lost their grip—nothing left to stop her, Kagome felt herself in a freefall.

"Kagome!" someone yelled.

Then arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her against a sturdy chest that she was beginning to think she knew a little too well.

"Hold on," Inuyasha told her, angling his body to land on the floor of the level beneath them. Unfortunately, the wood was weak there, too, and the pair broke through. Kagome pressed her face to his chest, avoiding the splinters showering the two—less than a second latter, they broke through the first floor's floor as well.

Kagome felt Inuyasha curl in around her and then more movement as he attempted to change positions mid-air to land on something. It was obvious something was wrong when they jolted to a stop on top of a large wooden object. A sharp _crack _made Kagome flinch, and then they were tumbling forward into the darkness into a pile of sharp corners and solid pieces of furniture. Wrapped in the half-demon's embrace, Kagome felt little, but she felt and heard the beating his body took from their crash landing in the basement.

Planks of wood and clods of drywall rained down on them, and when everything had finally settled, Kagome gently pushed Inuyasha's arm off of her. It flopped to one side, and the half-demon lay very still.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked softly, trying to extricate herself from under his body. It took her several minutes to pull off the debris that had piled on top of them after their fall from three floors above. "Inuyasha?" she repeated, pleadingly. "Inuyasha, please…"

He moaned.

"Oh, thank god," the girl said, trying to flip the heavy man over. There was blood everywhere, especially all over his face. The way his foot was facing was awkward, and Kagome realized with dread that his ankle was probably broken.

Finally succeeding in rolling him over, Kagome wished she could see better. The light from far above them, provided by a hole in the roof that had also provided the rain that had weakened the floors, wasn't enough. Kagome was feeling everything with her hands, hoping what they said about heightened senses when one was removed was true.

There was another warm gush of blood as she checked Inuyasha over, and she traced it to something jammed into his side. After a little investigating, she understood that he'd been skewered between two ribs with a stake of wood.

"Kagome!" she heard someone scream, a little distantly. Sango.

"I'm okay!" the girl yelled back, turning her face upward. She couldn't see anything other than that damn hole, so far above. "Inuyasha's in bad shape, though!"

"The monster's gone," her best friend called down to her, sounding worried but not afraid. "After it dropped you, it disappeared. Where are you?"

"In the basement, I think. There's… there's _a ton _of crap down here."

"Kagome, listen to me," she then heard Miroku, his voice annoyingly calm and supportive. "Inuyasha will be fine. He'll heal if you give him a little time."

"Okay," she mumbled, running her hand over the half-demon's face. He shivered at her touch, but didn't wake up. She mentally tallied his injuries: knocked out by a hit to the head, a bleeding gash on his face, impaled by some wooden object, and a broken ankle. He was not going to be happy when he woke up.

"We're going to try to find our way down!" Miroku was shouting now. "Stay still and stay quiet."

"Find the stairs," Kagome suggested, her voice started to go hoarse from shouting. Really, if she was supposed to stay off the monster's radar, all this screaming was probably not helping. "Stick to the edges; do _not _walk down the middle—it's where the floors are weakest!"

"We've got it!" Sango hollered down. There was movement, and then Kagome thought she could see the flashlight bobbing around.

"Everything's going to be fine," Miroku promised, but it sounded as though he was speaking to Sango just as much as Kagome. "We'll see you soon!"

Now alone (sort of) Kagome left Inuyasha's side to investigate. She couldn't make it far and she kept tripping over discarded pieces of furniture, but she finally located the wall about ten feet away. It took more than five minutes, but she was able to clear a space big enough for sitting.

Crawling back to the half demon, she felt around until she found his hand, and then Kagome's threw his heavy arm over her shoulders and attempted to lift him.

"Come on, Inuyasha," she said to him, giving his body a heave.

"Ka-Kagome…" the half-demon responded, his voice faint. With obvious effort, he followed her lead, stumbling toward the wall, putting his weight on his good ankle.

"That's it," the girl told him encouragingly, helping him drop to the floor. She flopped down beside him, crossed her legs, and put her hands on either side of his head—guiding him toward her lap until he rested there. Inuyasha propped his cheek up on her knee and promptly passed out again.

From where she was sitting, Kagome could reach the object impaling him in the side.

If the half-demon had fallen by himself and not had to worry about catching and protecting her, he probably would have landed just fine.

It was completely her fault.

Something she was beginning to realize was a common occurrence.

"You keep getting hurt because of me," she whispered regrettably, wrapping her fingers around the stake of wood. Pulling it out would cause the wound to bleed, but if Inuyasha healed as fast as Miroku thought he did, he couldn't heal _around _the wood. Closing her eyes out of instinct—she couldn't, after all, see anything anyway—Kagome yanked the wood out. Inuyasha yelped and buried his face in the soft part of her thigh, smothering his cry of pain.

There was another steady rush of blood which seemed to slow after an eternity, and then finally it stopped.

"Being half demon must come in handy," she muttered, smoothing down his bangs before tucking some of his hair behind his ear.

Inuyasha didn't say anything.

With a sigh, Kagome leaned her head against the wall, listening for signs of life anywhere else in the building. She heard nothing, which at least meant the monster wasn't nearby.

Pulling out her cell phone, trying to be very careful so as to not disturb Inuyasha, Kagome checked the time. She could use the screen of her phone as a flashlight, but her battery was already running low. Regrettably, she turned it off—it wasn't like she got a signal down there anyway.

Half an hour passed.

"Ka…"

"Shhh."

Five minutes later, Inuyasha's eyes flickered open.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice hoarse and a little groggy, as if he'd been asleep instead of knocked out.

"We fell through three floors," Kagome explained, still absentmindedly stroking his hair.

The half-demon closed his eyes and pressed closer against her hand, wishing she'd never stop.

"Thanks. You know, for…" the girl trailed off, unsure of how to phrase everything he'd done for her.

"It's fine," he grumbled gruffly, remembering himself. Inuyasha pushed his way off of her lap but then fell back down, wincing. "What's wrong with me?"

"You got stabbed in the side by a bit of wood, and I think your ankle's broken."

"Well… shit."

"Yeah," she agreed, her voice apologetic. "Sango and Miroku said they'd try to find a way down. I hope they haven't run into any more trouble."

"Did you see it again?" he asked, carefully sitting up again before pressing his back to the wall for support.

"The monster?" She paused and then shook her head, knowing he'd see her doing so even in the dark. "No. Well, I can't really see much of anything. I haven't _heard_ anything."

"Smartass," Inuyasha grumbled, but it almost sounded affectionate. "I think we need to keep moving.

"I think that sounds like an awful idea," Kagome argued. "I can't see anything, I don't have a flashlight or a weapon, and you're injured."

There was a pause as Inuyasha rethought the situation, looking around at the room they were in. "I don't like the idea of sticking around here when there's some _thing _lurking around. I'm already healing, so don't worry about me. I can see well enough, so I'll help guide you. About weapons…" There was a rustle as Kagome assumed he was patting down his jacket pockets, only to realize that he'd lost track of most of them during the fall. "I have a knife."

"Oh, gee, that's great," Kagome commented dryly. She remembered the way the tendril wrapped around her ankle had felt and shuddered. It was like fabric that had been dipped in ice water.

"Well, we're stuck in some kind of storage room. Maybe there's something down here?"

"Like what? _Props_?" Kagome countered but immediately snapped her mouth shut. She was taking her frustration out on the guy who had just saved her life.

"You never know!" Inuyasha responded defensively, scouring the room. Mostly it was broken, rotting furniture down there, but he thought he could see some objects that seemed like old costumes and props from old plays. "Hang on."

The moment he tried to get to his feet, however, the man howled with pain—his ankle, although starting to mend, wasn't anywhere near close enough to being healed.

"Okay, okay, stop that!" Kagome demanded, her voice frantic. She scrambled to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. "Tell me where to go, and I'll get what you saw, okay?"

A beat passed, and Kagome was certain the half-demon was sulking with the bitter realization that he was more or less useless at the moment. "Fine," he agreed reluctantly. "Turn one-eighty degrees and take three steps forward… Now, put your hands out in front of yourself to make sure you don't run into anything and start climbing. It's a pile of broken theater chairs, so watch—Stop! Don't put down your left hand, there's something sharp there. Move it two inches to the right and… there you go. Okay, you can stand up now. You're on a pile, but it looks pretty level. Pick your way _carefully _about… eight steps forward. There's a box right in front of you. I can't tell if it's open or closed, but if you can get into it, it's marked 'Weapons.'" He hesitated now as Kagome opened the box and began pulling things out of it, feeling all the different objects to figure out what they were. "Anything good?"

"Not really," she muttered, sure he could hear her. "Mostly plastic swords. Wait—!"

"What is it?"

To be sure, Kagome ran her fingers over it again, a smile crossing her face at the familiar shape: a smooth length of wood, slightly curved, with a taut string attached to the two ends. Reaching back into the box, she searched around until she found a cylindrical container; housed inside were several sticks with feathers on one end and sharp triangles on the other.

A bow and a quiver of arrows.

Even better, they felt _real_.

"Oh, I can use this," Kagome announced, turning around and raising her find over her head. Through the darkness, she hoped Inuyasha could make out the shape of the objects in her hands. "I was really good at archery in high school."

"You took archery in _high school_?"

With a laugh, Kagome stuck her tongue out at the hunter. "I'm full of surprises, aren't I?"

"You sure are," he grumbled—once again, Kagome was sure her ears were playing tricks on her, because she could have sworn he said the words warmly. "Get back over here. I'll need to use you as a crutch."

Then, the half-demon very carefully described to Kagome how she could pick her way back to him over the junk. When she stumbled at the end—hardly a surprise considering what she was doing—Kagome once again found herself safely propped up by Inuyasha's arms.

"Seems like we're going to have to rely on each other to get out of here," Kagome pointed out, begging any deity who could hear her to make it so that Inuyasha couldn't see that she was blushing. She was starting to get (she feared) a complex with all the times he saved her. It didn't help that he had really strong arms, and he smelled nice—like a forest, she thought. Leaves and sunshine and—

Kagome gave her head a shake and pulled herself out of his arms, only to reposition one of them over her shoulders.

"Alright, let's do this," she said, trying to ignore the way his rough fingers grazed her cheek.

It was slow going—Inuyasha calling out directions, Kagome fumbling around in the dark, and both of them moving in awkward, jerking movements to accommodate the half-demon's bum ankle. Eventually, they left that room and entered a long hallway. Inuyasha paused to sniff the air.

"I can smell fresh air from somewhere, but I'm not sure where."

"Can you hear Miroku and Sango?" Kagome asked. She hesitated before adding, "Or the creature?"

The girl held herself very still as he listened, but he eventually shook his head. "I can hear some movement, but nothing definite. I think I bruised one or both of my ears in the fall."

"Remind me to never plummet down three stories again," Kagome mumbled, bracing herself to start forward again.

Unable to help himself, Inuyasha chuckled, hugging her tighter with his arm. "Just don't ever do it when I'm not around to save your sorry ass."

"I don't appreciate your teasing, but I want to thank you again."

"Oh, I'm sure we can think of a way for you to do that," he answered—and Kagome couldn't tell if he meant it suggestively or not.

Once again, she became hyper-aware of how closely they were pressed together, and her cheeks warmed with a blush. "So what do you think the monster is?" she asked to change the subject.

"It smells like flesh and blood," Inuyasha told her, almost conversationally.

"Wait, is it good or bad for a creature to smell like that?"

"Bad, when it smells like _human _flesh and blood."

After some overdramatic gagging noises, Kagome grumbled, "Seriously, what is it with monsters and _eating _people? It's starting to get old. At least that creepy Mayu child only set people on fire."

Startled into laughter, Inuyasha tried to smother his loud guffaws before it attracted unwanted attention.

"You need a stronger stomach," he teased her. The strength in his voice told Kagome he was feeling better, healing even more already.

"Or maybe I should just stick to photography," she countered hotly.

"What, and leave me and Miroku? Once you're in this, you're in this for life," Inuyasha warned, but he still sounded lighthearted. "Real life is going to seem boring after all this."

The pair rounded a corner that Kagome couldn't see, went straight for several minutes, and then took a limping left. She could hear heavy creaks and groans in the distance as if the very building was moving, and for a second, Kagome imagined she could hear screaming. It sent a shiver racing down her spine. Sensing her fear, Inuyasha pulled her closer to his side. With every step they took, he was standing straighter and putting more weight on his hurt ankle.

As a former nurse, Kagome found it fascinating.

"It won't be completely healed until after a good, long night's sleep, but I can already feel the bone fusing together," he explained, guiding her down another hallway. The scent of fresh air was so strong now, that even Kagome could smell it. They had to be close to a set of stairs. Those would lead them to the lobby, and thereafter to freedom.

Or it would have, if there wasn't a sudden rumbling sound as the ceiling caved in on the pair.

As several ceiling tiles fell down on Kagome, Inuyasha shoved her toward a wall, pushing her up against it and shielding her with his body. Plaster and moldy bits of wood rained down around their heads before, with a tremendous _crash_, something very large fell down into the hallway with them. Kagome felt the same silky tendrils as earlier wrap around her wrists and ankles with bruising force.

"It's back!" Inuyasha shouted unnecessarily, retrieving his knife from his jacket and stabbing at the undulating mass.

A clamor of footsteps sounded, and then light blinded Kagome—Sango's flashlight. Backup had arrived. Blinking to adjust her eyes, Kagome peeked over Inuyasha's shoulder at the monster. The carved mask was nearby, and it looked ancient—she recognized it from art history, a class she'd taken on a whim in college. A Noh mask. The eyes were inky black, and underneath them an eerie smile stretched across the frozen face.

Directly below the mask was a huge, yawning mouth-like hole lined with row after row of very sharp teeth, like a shark's.

Naturally, of course, there were strips of bloody flesh hanging from its mouth. The chunks of skin and muscle looked half rotten and old. Victims from weeks ago, Kagome realized with dawning horror. The monster must eat humans who broke into the theater—teenaged vandals, maybe even patrolling policemen and homeless people. Poor bastards. Judging by how big its shapeless body was, it had to have a pretty steady diet. Why hadn't all the missing persons in Riverside caught a hunter's attention before now?

"Possessed mask!" Miroku shouted from somewhere in the shadows. Kagome couldn't see him, but he sounded triumphant with his explanation. "We found a body ceremonially buried behind the stage, but I don't have anything on me to set it on fire!"

"Of course you don't," Inuyasha grumbled angrily, slashing at a tendril until it released its hold on his elbow. He then turned the blade on the one snaking around Kagome's waist.

"What now?" Sango demanded, stomping on a tendril that had gotten too close to her feet. The brunette carefully kept the flashlight trained on Kagome and Inuyasha, so they could see what was going on since they were closer to the hungry mouth of the ancient Noh mask.

There was the smallest pause before both hunters shouted simultaneously, "Destroy the mask!"

"This is a job for…" Kagome declared dramatically, notching an arrow. She aimed carefully, keeping her hands steady. "The regional archery champion!" There was the softest _twang_ as she let the arrow fly—it hit directly between the eyes of the mask, but barely caused a crack. Kagome immediately notched another arrow and lined up her second shot.

"You can do it!" Sango yelled encouragingly, stomping on another tendril as it darted for her ankle. As soon as they got out of that damn theater, the brunette was dragging everyone to a weapons shop and getting something custom made for herself. A gun plus some kind of large, blunt object, she thought.

Kagome released her second arrow, and it whistled through the air, slicing the first arrow down the middle like only a professional could have done. It burrowed into the forehead of the mask, and a spiderweb of cracks split the wood.

With a howl, the monster started to dissolve, its dark body disappearing into smoldering ash right before their eyes.

For the third time, Kagome notched an arrow and aimed, her feet planted wide to keep herself steady. This time, however, when she released the projectile, it sailed through the air with the faintest glimmer of pale, lavender light trailing behind it. When it slammed into the Noh mask, the ancient wood shattered before dissolving into bright pink light. Then, finally, the entire creature winked out of existence altogether.

"What was that glow?" Kagome demanded with a panicking tone, lowering the bow to stare at the spot where the monster had been. "_What the hell was that_?"

"Yeah, well," Inuyasha hedged, rubbing the back of his head. He looked to Miroku with surprised eyes, but the human hunter couldn't read the half-demon's expression in the blackness of the basement. "If I had to guess, I'd say you have spiritual powers."

"…Like a freak?"

The half-demon scoffed. "Not like a freak. Like a—I don't know—a priestess maybe. They heal and cleanse stuff. I'll have to ask Sesshoumaru, but I don't think one's been reported for over fifty years."

"And when I shoot arrows, they glow," Kagome commented in a stunned, hollow voice, staring down at the bow with an accusing expression on her face.

"Just imagine what would happen if you shot a machine gun!" Miroku pointed out excitedly, stepping over the small pile of ash left behind by the monster. "That was actually very interesting. I never would have thought you would have powers, Kagome."

"I'm still _human _though, right?" she demanded, looking between the hunters fearfully. She really wanted to get out of that creepy building as soon as possible and toss the bow and arrow. She felt betrayed by her own archery skills. Why hadn't she ever shot glowing arrows before? (Probably because she'd never shot at a monster before.) Kagome also felt like she needed to have a serious talk with her mother about their ancestors.

"You're still human," Inuyasha promised, slinging his arm around her shoulders for a quick, supportive squeeze. He sounded in good spirits now, but whether from his accelerated healing or the idea that she apparently had super powers, Kagome wasn't sure.

"I'm not sure whether to be excited or disappointed by the fact that I'm the only normal one of this group," Sango pointed out, coming to stand on Kagome's other side so that she could light the way out of the building with their only remaining flashlight.

"What about me?" Miroku demanded, feigning offense.

Sango didn't answer.

Kagome groaned and attempted to bury her face in her best friend's shoulder. "I better not start wanting to eat people like all these other freaks."

"Don't worry," the half-demon told her cheerfully. "We'll kill you if that ever happens."

"Oh, gee, thanks."


	6. Bristle

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I have very little spare time lately, but I swear I have **not** forgotten about this story!

Is it weird that when writing Myouga's lines, I can hear them in his voice inside my head?

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Bristle

* * *

><p>"Hey, guys! We're back," Kagome announced cheerfully as she shouldered open the hotel door. She and Sango stumbled in, juggling their shopping bags and the massive object Sango had cradled in her arms. "We picked up some groceries."<p>

"Even better," Sango added, a smug smile curving her lips. "We picked up some weapons!"

After the door was shut and the two women finally looked around the room, they realized it was empty. Luggage was still piled everywhere, but the hunters—Inuyasha and Miroku, that is—were nowhere to be found.

Frowning, Kagome dropped her bags and went to search the bathroom and closet, as if she'd find the half-demon or the lecher hiding in one of them.

Refusing to let their disappearance get her down, Sango unwrapped her new weapon. Even after she pulled it out, it wasn't exactly obvious what it was—other than the fact that it looked like a giant boomerang, bone white with fabric wrapped around the middle for a handhold. Which, actually, was exactly what it was. The brunette dropped this heavy, extremely peculiar weapon onto one of the two hotel beds before pulling out her other new toys—two guns, both small and silver.

"Having something to protect myself with makes me feel so much better about this monster hunting thing," Sango admitted to her best friend.

Kagome continued to scour the room for the men, even going so far as to check under the beds. "That's nice," she mumbled in a distracted sort of way, pulling her head out from under the dust ruffle. She sneezed violently and rubbed at her nose, batting away a dust bunny. "Where _are_ they?"

Sango blinked back at her, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes. Considering they'd been out shopping together all day, how on Earth would she know something that Kagome didn't? "I don't know. Did you check the note that's on your bed?" Sango asked practically.

"Note?" Kagome echoed, finally focusing on the scrap of paper on her pillow. Her blue eyes swept the neatly printed lines, her frown deepening as she read. "It's from Miroku. He says he and Inuyasha had to go get supplies, but they'll be back by morning."

"They knew we were going shopping. They even told us where to go to find monster hunting weapons—speaking of, I can't believe they sent us alone to such a shady, creepy place!—so why didn't they just tell us what they needed while we were out?" Sango wondered out loud, retrieving her new holster and buckling it around her torso. She then slipped the guns in, smiling affectionately at them. Suddenly (in a move so quick it made Kagome jump in surprise), Sango pulled the firearms out and aimed at the wall with a serious expression on her face. With an ease that Kagome didn't know she had, the brunette twirled the guns around her index fingers before jerking them back into the holster like a pro. Or a cowboy. A cowgirl?

Rolling her eyes at her best friend's antics, Kagome did her best to ignore her own new weapons. In a nondescript but very large paper bag at her feet was a heavy-duty crossbow, a quiver of silver tipped arrows, and her own new handgun. Inuyasha had promised to take the girls out shooting the next day for a little target practice.

Now, however, it looked like the women were on their own until then.

Kagome couldn't help feeling like something weird was going on. Inuyasha had been acting antsy and extra rude all day, like he was nervous about something and taking it out on everyone else. Meanwhile, Miroku was obnoxiously calm and forgiving about everything. The hunters had practically shoved Sango and Kagome out the room earlier that afternoon.

"Do you think we should be worried?" Kagome asked thoughtfully, her eyebrows knit together over troubled eyes. "I mean, what if something happens?"

"If something happens," Sango replied pointedly, "we'll take care of it ourselves. We're not exactly helpless, especially now that we're armed."

With a sigh, Kagome plopped down onto the nearest unmade bed. It may seem weird to have only two beds between four people, but Kagome and Sango didn't mind sharing one while Inuyasha voluntarily slept sitting against the wall. It had to be a half-demon thing, because Kagome would never be able to sleep in such an uncomfortable position.

It had been almost a month since she'd first run into the hunters. Every day, Kagome learned new things about the men—such as the fact that Miroku's father died when he was very young, and he never knew his mother. Inuyasha was different. He'd spent a small part of his childhood with both parents, a few extra years after his father died with his mother before she succumbed to some illness, and had had to put up with the very serious Sesshoumaru for most of his life. Miroku's favorite color was purple. Inuyasha's favorite food was ramen. And so on.

Still, the girl just couldn't shake the feeling that there was a lot more to these hunters than she realized.

For example, where the hell had they disappeared to? The "trip for supplies" seemed totally bogus. They had a freaking armory in the back of the SUV.

Leaving Sango alone to polish her new weapon, the giant boomerang—Hiraikotsu, as Sango kept reminding her—Kagome pulled out a creased newspaper and started to read through it. She breezed through world-wide and country-wide news, but stopped when she got to the local stuff.

Really, she shouldn't have been surprised.

"Well, crap," she muttered, rereading the main headline for the third time with wide eyes.

"What?" Sango asked distractedly, fiddling with the guns now.

In answer, Kagome waved the newspaper in front of Sango's face. "This," the girl grumbled, jabbing a finger accusingly at an article. "There's a bunch of mysterious deaths in this city. Almost a dozen people have bled to death after being slashed."

"It could be a serial killer," the brunette suggested. She actually sounded hopeful about it. Being around the hunters had definitely started to mess with her moral compass.

"We should investigate," Kagome pressed.

Sango stared back at her best friend, taking in the earnest expression, the intense blue eyes, the frown that looked so out of place on such a cheerful girl. "You really think we should?"

"It's the right thing to do," Kagome insisted, again turning her attention to the newspaper. There was a big black and white photo of a body covered by a sheet. Blood was seeping through everywhere in thick lines, like the person had been attacked by a giant cheese grater. "Plus, we're hunters now, right? If we know something's up, it's our duty to follow up on it."

"You're right," Sango agreed finally, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. Between her and Kagome, Sango was by far the braver one—however, Kagome was such a busybody, always sticking her nose in everyone's business. In the end, Sango supposed it balanced out their friendship. "Alright, where do we start?"

Several minutes passed in silence as Kagome looked around the hotel room, studying the walls as if they'd be able to give her an answer. If Inuyasha and Miroku were there…

"Let's talk to the police."

Sango actually scoffed. "Yeah, like they're going to talk to an ex-waitress and a photographer."

"They will if they think we're police, too," Kagome replied, trying to sound nonchalant about it. Her voice, unfortunately, trembled with nervousness. Knowing that Sango was watching her closely, the girl hopped off the bed and grabbed the paper sack that she'd gotten at the hunter supply place. Gingerly, she pulled out and deposited the crossbow, quiver, and gun onto the sheets before finally pulling out a handful of leather wallets.

"You," Sango began, snatching them from Kagome eagerly, "got us fake badges, didn't you?"

"While you were trying to decide between a sword and that boomer—I mean, _Hiraikotsu_, I was talking to the creepy guy behind the counter. He suggested we get some, and I remembered how Miroku and Inuyasha used these a couple of weeks ago. I had him make us each two—one for a normal policeman and one for a government agent. He used our driver's license photos."

"You gave him our driver's licenses?" Sango demanded, her voice deadpan.

Kagome shrugged. "What harm could he _really_ do with them?"

"I don't know, Kagome," Sango began, her voice forcibly light. "I mean, he did just _make us fake government badges_."

"He's a hunter, which means he's a good guy."

There was another scoff. "Or he could just be some scumbag who likes to kill things," Sango muttered. She hesitated, remembering that having the fake badges was actually a good thing. It was illegal to impersonate a law enforcement officer, but it could open a lot of doors for them. "Thanks," the brunette said grudgingly.

"You're welcome," Kagome responded in her regular upbeat, cheerful way. "Let's get changed. We should probably look more like professionals. Blouses and slacks?"

"And maybe heels," Sango agreed, getting to her feet as well. "I hope we don't have to walk far—I'm not really a heels type of girl."

"Just think about all the extra damage you could do while butt-kicking with a pair of high heels!" Kagome reminded her, dragging out the duffle bag she was pretty sure had her only set of nice clothes. They'd had to pack pretty light when they left home, but no girl worth her girlishness left home without options.

* * *

><p>"You're an awful long way from home, officers," the medical examiner said with a tremulous smile and a snuffly voice. He was a middle-aged man, a little on the short side, and starting to go bald. His face was heavily whiskered. When he'd shaken the women's hands, his palm was clammy. Despite his nervous disposition, he'd been very nice and polite.<p>

"Your case caught our captain's eye," Kagome lied blithely, smiling back at the man. She felt chic and sophisticated in her nice slacks, colorful blouse, and dark blazer.

Her best friend, who had always been a couple of inches taller than her, towered over the younger girl in a pair of pumps. So far, they'd kept their cool, walking into the police station and showing their credentials like they'd seen people do on television. No one had questioned their story so far.

"You sure you ladies want to examine the bodies?" the man asked for the third time, rubbing his rotund belly absently. Myouga was his name. "It's fairly brutal."

"We'll be fine," Sango replied coolly, settling into the role with ease. Her father had been a cop, and a small part of her had always wanted to join the force when she grew up. "We just need a few minutes with the corpses to check a few things out."

Arriving at the morgue, the medical examiner unlocked the door with his badge and ushered the women into the chilly room. He approached the wall and pulled out one of the drawers, leaving the sheet over the body for Sango and Kagome to remove themselves. The victim was a tall man, and his pale, hairy feet peeked out from under the edge of the fabric.

Kagome checked the toe tag as if she knew what she was looking for before reaching to uncover the body. When she did, she had to stifle a gasp.

Over the past month, she'd seen way more dead bodies than could be considered normal, but she hadn't been this close yet. All the blood had been cleaned off, and it didn't smell or anything—but the gray flesh was creeping her out more than she would have admitted to anybody. Kagome half expected the man to sit up and demand the women tell him just what the hell they thought they were doing, looking at him like that when he was naked and, well, _dead_. Just because Kagome had spent so many years nursing and helping the injured did not make dealing with dead bodies any easier.

"Bled to death, right?" Sango asked, peering closely at the wounds. Only the waist up was uncovered, but there had to be almost two dozen long, thin slashes on the man's torso.

"That's correct," the man confirmed.

"What's your best guess, doctor?" Kagome asked, trying to act as confident as she had been before walking into the room. Sango looked totally comfortable, but Kagome was feeling more and more squeamish.

"I'd say piano wire," Myouga began doubtfully, his nervous voice quivering. "But the weapon used was much thinner, and piano wire would never be used in this way. It's more for strangling than slashing. The only explanation I have is that this man and the others walked into a web of very thin, barely visible wires. All the wounds were inflicted at the same time."

"Ah," Kagome muttered thoughtfully, trying to catch Sango's eye. Spiders? Giant spiders with razor sharp webs?

However, Sango wasn't paying any attention, looking closer at the body with her brow furrowed. "Do you still have the clothes he was wearing?"

Myouga shuffled off to the corner of the room to retrieve a Tupperware container from a shelf. "Of course," he answered, offering it to the brunette to look through. Sango quickly put on a pair of rubber gloves before going through the victim's belongings.

"Did you find anything unusual?" Kagome asked, finally averting her eyes from the corpse. She couldn't look at it any longer. Honestly, she felt bad for the poor guy. Not only was he dead, but all these people kept studying his cold, naked body.

"Well…" Myouga hedged, dropping his eyes to the floor. "There was a strand of hair, not the victim's. When we tested it, we found that it was neither human nor animal hair."

The women stayed for only a few minutes after that before hastily excusing themselves. Myouga escorted them to the front of the police station and waved as they left. Kagome and Sango waved back to the short man before facing front again. The sun had long since set.

"At least they left us the SUV," Sango muttered, unlocking the car. The girls piled in, but the brunette did not start the engine. They sat in silence for awhile watching the shadows lengthen around them as the streetlamps buzzed to life.

"I'm going to go with demonic spiders," Kagome announced finally.

"Just because the medical examiner said the word 'web'?" Sango asked, shaking her head. "They found hair, though. 'Neither human nor animal hair…' I'm at least willing to admit that you were right; this is a demonic situation."

"Of course I was right," the other woman agreed with an exaggerated wink as if to say, _When am I not_? "Maybe the spiders weave their webs using hair?"

"Well, something's definitely weird about all this," the brunette mumbled, turning the key. The SUV rumbled to life, and Sango carefully guided the vehicle out of the parking lot. "We'll talk with the boys about this tomorrow. The note did say they'd be returning in the morning, right?"

"No way!" Kagome argued hotly. "It's not even midnight yet. We can't give up! We don't need the boys; let's figure this out on our own."

"Look, I hate to admit it, but we're new at this. Waiting one night won't be the end of the world," Sango pointed out practically. Being a naturally confident woman with a boosted confidence from having weapons did not mean she was going to be stupid. Well, at least she was going to try very hard not to be stupid. Sometimes, a person just couldn't help it.

"It could mean another victim."

The silence told Kagome that Sango was reconsidering. Waiting for the hunters to return the following morning could mean someone else would die during the night.

"The police report said all the victims were found in the same three block radius. I say we head down there and look around some," Kagome suggested, waving her hand out the window in the general direction of the neighborhood. It was about an hour away from the police station. "Maybe just being there will keep some poor bastard from dying."

According to the reports they had dug up, all nine victims had been found in a suburb currently under development. Most of the houses were still under construction, and many were just frames or even big holes dug in the dirt. Eight of the nine victims were construction workers while the ninth had been a real estate agent. Some died during the day, while others had been found dead in the early hours of the morning. It was secluded and out of the way, a perfect hunting ground for some demon as far as Kagome was concerned.

Feeling a little regret over following Kagome's suggestion (the girl did tend to get everyone in trouble all the time—the kind of trouble that could lead to being eaten by a monster), Sango flipped on her turn signal. After a few wrong turns, the women found themselves in the suburban deathtrap. As they drove past empty shell after empty shell, Sango fought off the shiver running down her spine.

"This place is creepy," she muttered, watching how the SUV headlights swept across one of the half-built houses. There were no streetlights installed yet, and the sky was strangely empty and very dark.

"New moon," Kagome whispered, straining against her seatbelt to look through the windshield. There were plenty of stars, but nothing else. Her voice was hushed as if she was afraid to break the silence. "It is a little creepy…"

Once parked, the women got out of the car. They'd chosen a spot near the middle of the suburb and—what Kagome hoped anyway—the middle of the hunting ground. Since they were only investigating and not expecting a fight, Sango shrugged into her holster with both guns tucked inside while Kagome cautiously clipped hers to her belt; the boomerang and the crossbow they left in the backseat hidden under a tarp. Kagome was all gung-ho about fighting monsters, but that didn't mean she was completely at ease with guns yet.

"Stay together or split up?" Sango asked, scouring the area around the car with narrowed eyes. It was pitch black without headlights or the moon.

Kagome shot her best friend a very disgruntled look. "Haven't you ever seen a horror movie? _Never_ split up."

The brunette shrugged and picked a random direction to start in, trusting Kagome to fall into step behind her. It was eerily quiet, standing in a neighborhood where no one lived. Even though she'd spent so much time urban exploring, Kagome did not like the feel of the abandoned suburb. Dilapidated houses or hotels were different—at least they had been lived in and felt a little human. These homes might as well have been doll houses.

Six hours and thirteen disturbing, vacant houses later, they hadn't found a thing.

Which is exactly why they should have been on their guard.

In the distance, someone was walking along the side of the road in their direction.

Tightening her hands into fists, Kagome shuffled a little closer to Sango, who had already withdrawn a gun and had it angled toward the ground. Now, the ex-nurse and sometimes photographer was really starting to miss Inuyasha and Miroku. Sure, most of the time Kagome almost got killed whether they were close by or not, but knowing that they wouldn't be returning until _the next day_ was starting to freak her out a little. When had she become so reliant on them to make her feel safe? Every day, she was getting stronger and more comfortable with the idea that there really were things out there that went bump in the night.

"Hello?" Sango called out to the figure, her voice loud and steady.

Kagome thanked the heavens that her best friend was so brave.

When there was no answer, Kagome tried. "Excuse me, are you lost? We're… police officers and this area is very dangerous."

Still, the person did not respond.

With a small prayer that things were not about to go horribly, terribly wrong, Kagome pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her blazer. She turned it on and aimed at the person, who had thankfully walked close enough to be lit up by the weak beam of light. A beat passed as the women stared at the newcomer dumbfounded.

"Is that," Kagome started, her voice very quiet, "is that a… prostitute?"

The woman in question finally stopped walking and sneered at the fake officers. She was wearing very tiny shorts and a very tiny halter top, her long legs emphasized by the spiky black heels strapped on her feet. The pumps were several inches taller than the ones Sango was wearing, and Kagome's own ankles hurt just looking at them. Really, the woman was very beautiful; she had full lips painted with dark red lipstick, long eyelashes, and her perfect bob hairstyle was held back from her face by a headband.

"I'm not a hooker," she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her long fingernails against her arms. Her voice was low, throaty, almost purring; it made Kagome a little (a lot) uncomfortable.

Miroku, Sango was sure, would have loved it. The brunette struggled not to laugh considering the serious situation. It also irked her that she was thinking about that no-good, perverted, okay-_fine_-charming man.

"I'm sorry," Kagome tried to apologize quickly, her voice as polite as she could make it. "That comment was completely uncalled for. Do you need a ride or anything? There have been a lot of… accidents around here lately, and you should definitely not be wandering around alone in the dark."

Sango's grip on her gun tightened, and she frowned, not liking this woman at all. Kagome had eased back into her friendly, people-person attitude, but the brunette found it beyond suspicious that a woman dressed like _that _was in an empty suburb in the very late hours before dawn. Plus, it was winter already; wasn't she freezing?

"Kagome, I think we should go," Sango muttered in a low voice, surreptitiously flipping her gun's safety off. The way the woman was watching them made the hair on her arms stand on end—she felt like they were prey. "I think she can handle herself."

With an eye-roll, Kagome shot her best friend a dirty look. They couldn't leave this woman to fend for herself in a place where nine people had been brutally murdered. Naturally, it hadn't occurred to her yet that this woman could be the murderer. In Kagome's defense, everyone else the hunters had encountered in the past month had obviously been monsters or had something very wrong about them. This woman's only problem was that she was too scantily dressed.

"Sango—"

"Kagome," the brunette repeated, her voice forced, "I think we should go. _Now_."

"Ohh," the woman purred, her eyes narrowing. "I think that would be a very good idea." And then she winked.

"Excuse me?" Kagome asked, her voice confused and maybe even a little offended by Sango's pushy attitude. She was only trying to help!

Without answering, Sango took a step away from the woman—

And backed into something. She felt pressure along her back, her shoulders, and one of her thighs, but Sango wasn't quite sure what it was. Immediately pausing, she studied their surroundings again. The way they had come from was obviously safe, but most everywhere else… It just didn't seem right. Even in the dark, the air seemed a little distorted, and the light from Kagome's flashlight was glinting off of something. Actually, make that many somethings. Long, thin...

Wire?

"Normally," the stranger was saying now, stepping closer and examining her fingernails. "I prefer men, but I might make an exception this one time."

Finally realizing there was something very threatening—and, okay, very creepy—about this woman, Kagome reached for her own gun.

Flicking her fingers, the woman glared at the hunters. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned, yanking at an invisible thread in the air.

Kagome's hand was jerked away from her belt, and she felt something bite into her wrist. All three women watched as her arm lifted up into the air and hung there, dangling from something that the humans couldn't see.

With a sneer, the woman tightened her grip, and Kagome hissed in pain. Her skin split open, and several drops of blood splattered the pavement by her feet.

"Oh, this is just great," Sango grumbled, realizing that they were surrounded by the same maze of wires—or was it hair?—that had killed the other victims. Thin, razor sharp, and practically invisible threads of _death_. With their luck, they'd walked right into a trap.

Kagome had been right—there would be another victim that night. Well, two victims.

Them.

Before anyone could do or saying anything else, Kagome's cell phone went off. It was still that same pop song ringtone that annoyed the hell out of Inuyasha. The three women looked around at one another, feeling like the doom-heavy atmosphere had been interrupted.

"If I don't get that, my friends might get very suspicious," Kagome ground out, her friendly expression officially replaced with a pissed-off one.

"You'll be dead long before anyone can get here," the demon(ess) pointed out with a lilting laugh.

"Yeah, we're kind of hunters," Kagome continued, raising her voice louder over the ringtone. "And while Sango and I might be a little new at this, Inuyasha and Miroku will totally hunt your sorry ass down."

The demon hesitated in her gloating and a grin curved across her face, one that made her look less lovely and more murderous. "_The _Inuyasha?"

Oh.

Well then.

Kagome scoured her mind, trying to remember if the half-demon hunter had ever mentioned a slutty-looking demon who liked to slice her victims up. He hadn't. However, both he and Miroku had heavily hinted that there was an entire network of hunters around the country, many of whom worked for Sesshoumaru. Hunters must gossip about each other, which is how this demon had to have heard about Inuyasha. That was her only explanation.

"Well, he's certainly Inuyasha, but I don't know about '_The_ Inuyasha,'" Kagome admitted, a little dumbfounded. Was he really that big of a deal?

"Answer it," the woman ordered, yanking her hand again and causing Kagome to bite back a scream as the thread around her wrist tightened.

With her other hand, the girl reached into her front pocket and withdrew her cell, answering just before it sent the caller to voicemail. It was, thankfully, Inuyasha. "H-hello?" she greeted, her voice strained.

There was a pause. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" the hunter demanded, sounding worried. He could hear her pain through the phone; later, that would probably seem sweet to Kagome, but for now she just appreciated his rare moment of sensitivity.

"We're at the Wooden Creek housing development—" Kagome broke off with another hiss of pain when the demoness tightened her grip. Blood was now streaming from her injured wrist down her upraised arm, disappearing under the sleeve of her blazer.

The stranger stepped forward and snatched the phone out of the girl's hand, putting it to her ear. "Inuyasha?" she purred, her voice sounding seductive even to Kagome and Sango. There was a pause before the demon started to chuckle. "Kagome's a little… occupied at the moment."

In response, Kagome screamed in the direction of her phone, "She looks like a whore!"

The demoness backhanded her.

Crumpling to the ground, Kagome finally found her wrist free. She cradled it to her chest and applied pressure, trying to stop the bleeding. Sango crouched down next to her, examining the wound.

"You okay?" the brunette asked, looking royally pissed off. It didn't help that she was feeling helpless while the demon put her best friend through so much pain.

"I'll be fine," Kagome bit out, glaring up at their attacker.

"You might recognize my name," the demonic woman was saying into the phone, but her eyes were on the women in front of her. "I'm Yura—as in, Yura of the Hair."

Even from several feet away, Sango and Kagome could hear Inuyasha's angry cursing through the phone.

"Oh, honey," Yura growled throatily, practically nuzzling the cell phone. "I can't promise that. If you didn't want your little girlfriend to get killed, then why did you let her run around without you to protect her?"

"I don't need him!" Kagome countered immediately, loudly. "I don't need you!" she repeated, looking at the cell phone as if it were Inuyasha there in person.

There was some more angry cursing.

Almost as an afterthought, Kagome mumbled, "And I'm not his girlfriend."

"How about this," Yura continued, ignoring Kagome's words and eyeing the two humans with a cruel smile twisting her lips. "I'll let them go if you promise to come meet me yourself."

"He's not even in the city," Sango argued.

The sadistic grin stretched wider.

"That's not what he just told me," Yura whispered in a husky voice, crinkling her nose in a way that would look cute and innocent on practically any other woman. "He said he's nearby."

"I'm going to kill them," Sango threatened, her eyes sparking with her anger. Those jerks!

"Would you like to say goodbye to him?" the demoness asked, holding the phone out toward Kagome.

With a glare, the human girl snatched her cell back. "What do you mean you're in the city?" she demanded into the phone, her pain from her wrist and her frustration over once again finding herself a victim bubbling into her voice.

"I, well," Inuyasha started, the hesitation confirming Kagome's earlier suspicion that there was something weird going on with the hunters' sudden disappearance that afternoon. "Miroku and I had a few things to take care of. We weren't sure we'd make it back to the hotel before tomorrow."

"And yet you can make it to a housing development on the outskirts of the city at the drop of a hat. Or, I guess, at the drop of a name—_Yura_," she replied accusingly, her blue eyes spitting fire at the demoness, who was hovering over the women. Her hands were tangled in the invisible net in the air. Yura of the Hair. She was actually killing people with _hair_.

"Of course I can be there," Inuyasha responded gruffly. There were noises in the background that hinted that he and Miroku were already on the move—slamming doors, rustling clothing, the click of a gun putting a bullet in the chamber. "You're in trouble."

"I can take care of mys—"

"Kagome," he cut her off, his voice thick with an emotion she couldn't pinpoint. "I've heard of Yura. She's ruthless. Just let me rescue you without getting any crap in return—I swear this will not make me think any less of you."

Unable to help the small grin tugging at her mouth, Kagome sniffed haughtily into the phone. "Fine. But just this one time!"

Several seconds of silence stretched between the two before Inuyasha muttered quietly into the phone, "I'll be right there. You sure as hell better be alive when I show up."

There was a click, and the call ended.

"He's on his way," Kagome told Sango and Yura, slipping her phone back into her pocket. "You told him you'd let us go. Are you really going to?"

With a sneer that both Sango and Kagome saw coming a mile away, Yura shook her head. "I'm going to kill you both right in front of him."

* * *

><p>"Let's investigate," Sango said in a high-pitched, mocking voice, imitating Kagome's earlier words. "It's the right thing to do!"<p>

"You should know me well enough by now to know that when I want to do anything, we should probably be heavily armed and expecting an army of demons," Kagome retorted, sulking only a little bit at her best friend's imitation.

The two women were dangling from a tree, trussed up like holiday turkeys with the fine, invisible strands of hair. During the struggle, Yura had sliced their clothes—their only nice clothes!—several times, and Kagome now had a bleeding cheek to match her bleeding wrist. Meanwhile, Sango had managed to bite Yura once her guns had been yanked away by some more fancy hair slinging. Ever since, the brunette had been complaining about the taste of death and slut she swore lingered in her mouth. Their guns were in a pile at the base of the tree, just out of reach of their tied-up limbs.

Yura had disappeared, probably watching for the hunters from a vantage point nearby. When she'd taken off, dangling from her hair that was webbed all over this part of the neighborhood, it almost looked like she was flying.

Even though their eyes had adjusted to the pitch blackness of the night, Kagome couldn't help wishing the sun would rise. It couldn't be far off now—twenty or thirty minutes, maybe. To her, everything seemed a lot less scary when it was sunny.

She would also feel a lot better once Inuyasha (and Miroku) had arrived.

"What do you think is taking them so long?" Sango asked, trying to change positions in mid-air, a pained look on her face.

"I think they're trying to buy some time."

"For what?" the brunette demanded, looking around at the neighborhood. "So we just die a little closer to sunrise than we would have before?"

"I don't—"

"Kagome!" someone called from nearby.

"…Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, it's me," he answered. "Where are you?"

"In the tree!" she answered, not bothering to keep her voice down. There was no doubt in her mind that Yura was close by, watching. The demon had left Sango and Kagome dangling in a web of hair, like flies luring another bug into her trap. Or… some other more appropriate metaphor. Dangling meant a lot of blood had rushed to Kagome's head, leaving her a lot dumber than usual.

When the man with Inuyasha's voice appeared below the women, Kagome bit back a startled gasp.

It was not Inuyasha.

No, it was some other very handsome, but very human man. In the night, Kagome couldn't tell the color of his hair or eyes other than the fact that they were both dark and definitely not Inuyasha's silver hair or golden eyes.

"Who are you?" Kagome demanded, feeling as if she'd been cheated.

"Please don't tell us you're a demon who can mimic other people's voices," Sango commented dryly, far past amused and bordering on exhaustion after a long night. "We're already dealing with one demon; we don't need a second."

With an exaggerated sigh, the man crossed his arms over his (very nice) chest and glared up at the girls. "We don't have time for this. Yes, I'm really Inuyasha. Yes, I'm human at the moment. No, I won't explain right now. I'll explain later. Now let's get you both down from there."

"You're _not_ Inuyasha!" Kagome protested, gesturing at his head. In her enthusiasm, she flipped upside down and got herself even more tangled. "You have normal, boring ears."

"Yeah, _human _ears. Because I'm _human_," the hunter repeated, pulling a large knife from his jacket and starting to slice at the hair holding them captive. The metal must have been something special because it sizzled on contact with the demon's trap.

"Where's Miroku?" Sango asked, deciding to just accept this strange twist of events. There would hopefully be time later to get it all straightened out.

"He should be sneaking up on Yura right about—"

Inuyasha broke off when a feminine scream rent the air, followed by a furious howl. The fight had begun.

"Where were you all day?" Kagome pressed, watching this man—Inuyasha, she had to remind herself—carefully cut her down from the tree. With one last swipe, she was loose, and he caught her in his arms. For a moment, they were nose to nose, staring into each other's eyes. Human Inuyasha's eyes were a velvety brown, Kagome realized. Then, horrifying herself, she started to blush. _She could feel his breath on her cheek_.

"You were hiding out to avoid showing us that you turned human," Sango guessed, breaking the moment between her friends.

"Yeah, actually," Inuyasha admitted, averting his eyes and dropping Kagome to her feet. He then set to work on releasing the brunette. "Look, I was going to tell you guys eventually… I turn human during the new moon."

"Why?"

"Half-demons turn human once a month," Inuyasha explained, slicing through the cords binding Sango. The moment she was released from the trap, she dropped to her feet without any help from the hunter.

"Why?" Kagome repeated.

Inuyasha opened his mouth to answer before promptly snapping it shut, looking a little confused himself. "You know what? I don't actually know. It's just the way it's always been."

"You should probably figure that part out," Sango suggested in her no-nonsense voice, picking up her guns and checking to make sure Yura had left them loaded. "Anyone else feel like this has been way too easy so far?"

Almost in answer to her question, Miroku came tearing around the corner and darting toward them, a wild look on his face. He careened past them, busily reloading his shotgun as he went. "Never grope demons!" he shouted, tossing a look over his shoulder in time to see Yura swoop down from the nearest roof like a feminine, scantily clad Tarzan. "Even ones that look like that!"

"Mostly I'm disturbed that you groped a demon, but I'd be more disturbed if you groped one that wasn't that attractive," Inuyasha muttered, unstrapping his own shotgun from his back and pumping it once.

"You think Yura's attractive?" Kagome asked curiously, sounding hurt even to her own ears. She blamed it on the lack of sleep and the whole blood rushing to her head thing.

"Not as attractive as you," Inuyasha responded automatically, knowing that was the only thing he _could _say if he didn't want to have to fight Kagome at the same time as trying to kill Yura. However, even with his blasé tone, both of them believed he meant it. At least a little.

"Very good," Sango praised sarcastically, aiming at the flying demoness as she descended on the still fleeing Miroku. "Now how are we going to take her out?"

"Yura may be a bitch, and she may be bloodthirsty, but she's a small fry," Inuyasha explained, carefully lining up his shot. They were too far away for the shotgun to be very accurate, but he pulled the trigger anyway. Several of the pellets slammed into Yura, and she fell from the sky, buying Miroku some time. "Shoot her enough times, and she'll die."

"Sounds good to me!" Sango shouted, charging headfirst into the fray, guns out in front of her.

Kagome held back, watching the battle with Inuyasha. Now that Yura was outnumbered, it was obvious that she wasn't as big of a threat as most of the other monsters the group had fought in the past month. In fact, Kagome was sure that if she and Sango had been better prepared when they first ran into the demoness, the women could have easily taken Yura out. Once again, Kagome's need to help everyone (plus her insatiable curiosity) had put them at a disadvantage.

"I'm too naive," she admitted softly, smiling absentmindedly as Sango tackled Yura before shooting the demoness in the chest at point blank range. Enraged, Yura of the Hair threw the brunette off of her but couldn't get an attack in before Miroku shot her in the back with his shotgun. The fight was wrapping up very quickly; Inuyasha and Kagome weren't even needed.

"I like that you're naive," Inuyasha surprised her by saying, his voice gruffer than usual.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Human Inuyasha blushed easier.

The sun peeked over the horizon, and the very first rays slanted across the concrete. As the light touched the soles of Inuyasha's feet, Kagome watched with curious eyes as his dark hair started to bleed into its normal silvery color. Within seconds, a fang was hooked roguishly over his bottom lip and his ears had slid to the top of his head, once again soft and furry.

"I like that you're half demon," Kagome told him before she could stop herself. Biting her lip in embarrassment, she grinned up at the hunter. He was cute as a human; he just happened to be cuter as himself.

"Yeah?"

"Definitely," Kagome confirmed. She hesitated, once again glancing over at the fight. "Think we should help them?"

"I think Sango needs this kill for herself," Inuyasha countered thoughtfully.

"You're right; she doesn't appreciate getting her butt saved all the time," she agreed.

As the air turned a rosy color with the rising sun, Kagome's hand inched toward Inuyasha's. With a burst of confidence (not to mention very warm, very pink cheeks), she closed the gap and threaded her fingers with his. To her delight, he squeezed back and tugged her in the direction of their friends.


	7. Trickster

Up to this point, we've been seeing almost everything from Kagome's perspective. This chapter, Inuyasha is going to take center stage.

P.S. Sesshoumaru finally makes his appearance!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Trickster

* * *

><p>The loud <em>cracks <em>echoed around the forest clearing, and Inuyasha tucked his ears against his head, struggling to muffle some of the noise. Even after years of monster hunting, gunshots still hurt his sensitive hearing. Once or twice, he even considered going back to the old way of doing things—swords. Just in case he ever needed it, the half-demon had his trusty Tessaiga stashed in the trunk of the SUV at all times.

Unfortunately, just as hunters had advanced with technology, so had the monsters. Sometimes, a sword just didn't cut it anymore. (Pun completely intended.)

"That's pretty good, Sango," Inuyasha praised the brown-haired woman, standing behind her to gently reposition her elbow. "Just don't lock your arm up like this—keep it loose, or you'll feel sore in the morning."

Nearby, Miroku's mouth dropped open, a crude smile on his face. Inuyasha immediately held up his hand and shoved it in the human hunter's face.

"No," Inuyasha cut him off sharply. "For the love of god, don't make a perverted joke out of that."

Disappointed, Miroku snapped his mouth shut, rolled his eyes, and went to check on their supplies without having said a single word.

A cry of frustration brought Inuyasha's attention to the fourth member of their little group—and to his own irritation, his heart started to thud loudly as soon as he looked at the petite woman. Her long hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and she was clad in a pair of worn blue jeans. Standing with her legs shoulder-width apart, her eyes narrowed in concentration, and a loaded shotgun aimed in front of her, Kagome was pretty much the most attractive thing he'd ever seen. Since that single incident of hand-holding during the Yura slaying, the girl had gone back to being her usual sweet but confusing self. Biting back these feelings (which made him more agitated than giddy), Inuyasha approached the girl with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What's wrong?"

"I suck at this," Kagome complained in a stressed voice, letting the shotgun drop to her side. "I'm not even hitting the target at all; I should just stick to the crossbow."

"Shotguns aren't meant for accuracy," Inuyasha grumbled in his low voice, reaching for the shotgun and lifting it so that she was aiming at the target once again. He came around behind her and wrapped his arms along hers, his hands around her wrists as he adjusted her pose. The girl felt warm in his arms, and a small part of him felt very smug at the way her cheeks instantly flared up at his touch. "I just want you to get used to shooting this thing in case you ever need to. Wait for the monster to get close, brace yourself, and then pull the trigger."

With Inuyasha still supporting her, Kagome tried again. This time, at least half the buckshot slammed into the target nailed to a tree only a few yards away. The shotgun and the buckshot glowed with soft, lavender light as soon as she pulled the trigger. Kagome still wasn't used to her priestess powers, which seemed to flare up at random moments before disappearing like they had never existed in the first place.

About to say something to her, Inuyasha cut himself off when her phone started trilling loudly. Quickly—if not a little reluctantly—the half-demon released his hold on the girl so that Kagome could answer her phone. The hunters and Sango watched with wary expressions as the girl carefully checked her caller I.D. before answering the call.

"Hello?" Kagome answered, her voice reserved but polite. A beat passed, and her brow furrowed over her blue-gray eyes. "Hello?" she repeated. "Anyone there?" After a few more awkward seconds, she hung up, looking troubled.

"Another wrong number?" Sango asked her best friend, her tone purposely kept light.

"A bunch of static again," Kagome mumbled, staring at her phone as if she expected it to bite her. Giving herself a shake, she deposited the cell back in her pocket. "That's the fifth time in two days."

Miroku and Inuyasha shared a look, silently communicating to each other that these hang-ups were worrying them more than they wanted to let on. For the most part, Kagome was the only one of them who anyone ever called; the girl often spoke with her surviving family members. Sango occasionally got calls from her younger brother, Kohaku. Between Miroku and Inuyasha, they only ever heard from Sesshoumaru. In other words, a call at all was rare but a static-filled, creepy call was beyond unusual.

And why Kagome?

"Forget about it," Inuyasha suggested finally, breaking off eye-contact with his best friend before the girls noticed. They'd have to discuss it later, when they were alone. It wouldn't do any good to worry the others. "Let's head back to the—"

Once again, Inuyasha was interrupted by an incoming phone call. This time, though, it was his own cell ringing.

"Yeah, what is it?" he greeted gruffly, and Kagome promptly smacked him on the arm for being so rude to whoever it was. The half-demon ignored her, but he couldn't help the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. (Really, this was getting ridiculous; even getting hit by her made his stomach flutter all girlishly.) "Oh, hey," he grunted once the caller identified himself. While Inuyasha continued to talk, he motioned the other three back toward the SUV, wanting them to start packing up. "Okay, if that's what you want," he said, taking the shotgun from Kagome and flipping on the safety after tucking the phone between his cheek and shoulder. "Fine. Whatever. We'll be there in a few hours."

"Where to?" Miroku called out, helping Sango load the surviving targets into the trunk.

"Sesshoumaru wants to see us," Inuyasha explained, looking at his closed cell phone with the same frown he always had whenever he talked about his half-brother. "And when I say 'us,' I actually mean _us_. All of us. He wants to meet the girls."

Surprised, Miroku dropped a duffle bag on his foot. Howling in pain, the man hopped around, managing to grimace up at the half-demon in the middle of his dramatics. "Seriously? I've been working with you since I was a teenager, and I've never met him face to face. The girls, though, they work with us for a little over a month, and they get a personal invitation from freaking _Sesshoumaru_?"

"Don't take it personally," Inuyasha grumbled, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sure it's nothing good."

What he wasn't telling the others was that the request confused the hell out of him. Sesshoumaru hated humans. Sure, the demon lord protected them indirectly by having monsters and rogue demons killed, but that didn't mean he actually _liked _doing it. Really, it was one of those things that came with being the all-powerful, ruling lord of a region. What was even more troubling was the fact that Sesshoumaru had asked to meet Kagome and Sango by name, which Inuyasha couldn't remember ever telling him. Who was talking to his brother about his friends?

"Should we be worried?" Kagome asked, following after Inuyasha with a frown. To no one's surprise, when Inuyasha took the driver's seat, Kagome automatically hopped up front. With some knowing looks that were becoming more and more common lately, Miroku and Sango piled into the backseat. They had not missed the hand-holding incident of two days prior.

"It'll be fine," the half-demon assured all three of them, but his uncertain voice didn't make them feel very confident. "Just don't look him in the eye and don't talk back."

Offended, Kagome exclaimed, "I never talk back!"

Inuyasha shot her a very dry look, one eyebrow quirked almost to his hairline with a silent rebuttal.

"Okay," she amended carefully, "I know when to not talk back."

"Not really," Sango countered from where she sat behind her best friend. "You smart-mouth demons all the time."

"I do not!"

"You really do," Miroku contributed, his voice light as if to soften the blow. "It's surprising that your mouth hasn't gotten you into more trouble than it has already."

"You guys suck," Kagome finally spluttered, very maturely. "Just you watch—Sesshoumaru is going to love me."

* * *

><p>"I hate you."<p>

"Pardon me?" Kagome demanded, her voice dangerously calm. She folded her arms tightly against her chest and peered up at the very tall, very regal demon standing in front of her.

Inuyasha watched this exchange with a slightly amused expression on his face—mostly it was because sweet little Kagome versus big bad Sesshoumaru was visually hysterical. He also found it funny because for a few moments, he'd actually worried over what would happen if his half-brother had taken a liking to Kagome. The two hating each other just seemed better for everyone involved.

"You smell like vanilla," Sesshoumaru replied, his voice completely even and carefully measured. "I detest vanilla."

"I can't help that!" Kagome countered shrilly. "I don't use any scented products; that must just be how I smell. _Naturally_."

It was, actually; Inuyasha could attest to that. Not that he sniffed her or anything weird like that. It just happened to be something a person notices when stuck in a car with someone else for hours at a time. (Just to prove that he wasn't a weird stalker, Inuyasha had also noticed that Miroku smelled like laundry detergent while Sango had a cinnamon scent due to her very distinctive tooth paste.)

"Your voice is too highly pitched," Sesshoumaru continued, the smallest sneer appearing on his face.

"I'm a _girl_, you son of a—"

Kagome's voice was muffled as soon as Sango clapped a hand over her best friend's mouth, sensing that they were about to get into a situation that even the great and wonderful Inuyasha wouldn't be able to save Kagome from. Namely, the wrath of Sesshoumaru. No matter how properly dressed the man was in his silk suit and Italian shoes; no matter how perfectly placed every hair was on his head; and no matter how refined his features were, Sango had no doubt that Sesshoumaru was a demon lord for a reason.

"You are also human," Sesshoumaru concluded, his voice several degrees colder than it had been a moment before.

"As enlightening as this has been," Inuyasha interrupted. He took a step forward to bring his half-brother's attention back to him. Their eyes, so very similar in color, clashed heatedly. Even though they'd been working together for years, their relationship was as rocky as ever—Sesshoumaru was still disgusted by Inuyasha's very existence, while Inuyasha found Sesshoumaru about as easy to deal with as a rabid wolf… and, as mentioned several times before, Inuyasha _really _hated wolves. "Why did you ask us to come here if all you were going to do was insult us?" the half-demon complained.

"I have not insulted _you_, I have insulted this woman… you half-breed," Sesshoumaru pointed out calmly, taking a seat in his armchair. The group was assembled in his parlor, full of dark tones, velvety curtains, and straight-backed chairs. The décor was as serious as the owner. "Sit."

As commanded, the four hunters dropped into the nearest seats. Sango stuck close to Kagome, ready to cover her mouth again if necessary.

"I required you to bring these women because we are about to enter a situation where women are necessary," the demon lord began to explain.

"I have a feeling this is about to get very sexist," Kagome muttered darkly, still miffed over Sesshoumaru insulting her.

"Or very perverted," Miroku suggested, leaning forward. He was intrigued.

Sesshoumaru ignored them both.

"I have recently come into the possession of a…" Here, he hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "Well, quite frankly, a child."

"Do we want to know _how _you 'came into the possession of a child'?" Inuyasha asked snidely. "I mean, because if you went and killed off an entire family and stole the kid, I don't want to be a part of that. And if, heaven help us, you actually found a woman who would sleep with you—I _really _don't want to hear about it."

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru cautioned in a sinister voice, but left the threat hanging in the air. After a few seconds of charged silence, he carried on with his explanation. "I found it on my doorstep."

"What kind of sick, twisted individual would abandon a child on _your _doorstep?" Inuyasha demanded, managing to sound scandalized through his amusement. Kagome was beginning to see that the mostly gruff, oftentimes serious Inuyasha acted like a little brother (in other words, a total pest) when in the same room as Sesshoumaru. She wasn't sure if she liked this side of him or if it would eventually drive her crazy.

"Can we stop calling the child an 'it'?" Kagome requested, folding her hands primly in her lap. She was definitely still miffed.

"Just what do you suggest?"

"He or she," Kagome pushed, pursing her lips to keep from saying anything more that might get her in trouble like, _What are you, an idiot? You cold-hearted bastard! _It just didn't seem like a very good idea at the moment.

"_He _is a fox cub," Sesshoumaru relented after a minute-long stare down with the human girl. To his mortification, she not only didn't blink, but she didn't seem upset at all. (Un)Fortunately, Kagome would have gotten plenty of glaring practice with Inuyasha, and the brothers' eyes really weren't all that different.

"Wait," Sango interrupted, holding up her hand to call attention to herself. Up to this point, she'd been happy with keeping her mouth shut and staying out of trouble—unlike her best friend. "When you say fox cub, are we talking about a literal fox cub?"

"A young fox demon," Sesshoumaru clarified, again with a haughty sneer. It went unsaid that he thought the question was a ludicrous waste of his time.

"Hey, it was a legitimate question!" Kagome argued on Sango's behalf. "I'm not sure whether it's because you're men, you're hunters, or you're supernaturally-inclined, but you all really suck at explaining things." There was a pause as the conversation finally registered fully with Kagome. "So you called us here because you have a kid to watch, and automatically you think that you need women to watch the kid for you? …Because we're _women_?"

"Yes."

Inuyasha had to lunge forward to hold Kagome back from physically attacking the demon lord—otherwise known as suicide. Over her frantic moves to get her hands around Sesshoumaru's neck, Miroku commented in a sad voice, "Ah, so it _was_ sexist and not perverted."

"We're getting a babysitting assignment," Sango concluded, looking exasperated and a little murderous herself. "You really are a dick."

"Inuyasha, control your friends," Sesshoumaru ordered, his grip on the arms of the chair tightening to the point where the visitors could hear the wood groaning under his strength, threatening to splinter.

"Yeah, you see, it doesn't really work like that," the half-demon muttered, successfully wrangling Kagome back to his chair. After some arguing, he managed to get her to perch on the arm where he could keep a firm grip on her elbow.

"I will not be insulted in my own home."

"It's not my fault you're a dick," Inuyasha protested impudently. Still, he had a grin playing around his mouth; he liked jabbing at his brother, waiting for the demon lord to snap. Inuyasha was _poking the bear_, and he was enjoying it immensely.

Abruptly, Sesshoumaru shot to his feet, his movements so graceful that it left Kagome a little breathless watching. (Really, it was almost silly how good-looking the lord was. Kagome resented the fact that a man could look that good and be such a sourpuss, stick in the mud, jerk underneath such a pretty face.) Leveling them all with a glare, the lord swept from the room, the door slamming shut behind him.

"Did we just get dismissed?" Sango asked curiously.

Inuyasha blinked slowly, his head tilted in thought. "Maybe. I say we give him two minutes, and if he's not back by then we can go."

The moment he'd finished speaking, the door was being pushed back open, and Sesshoumaru reappeared. Hiding behind Sesshoumaru's long legs, peeking around his knees, was a little boy with a mop of red hair and twinkling, intelligent green eyes.

"Hi," the boy greeted—he had a young, hoarse voice.

"This is Shippou," Sesshoumaru introduced, reaching down to place a hand on the young demon's shoulder to steer him into the room. "You have been assigned to help him."

"Help him with what?" Inuyasha demanded, his hackles rising. Then again, if he hated being ordered around by his half-brother that much, he never should have agreed to work with the demon lord in the first place.

"Get revenge," Sesshoumaru said simply.

"I need you to help me kill the guys who killed my parents," Shippou explained, twisting his hands nervously. As an afterthought, he added, "Not that I couldn't do it by myself! I'm strong and stuff. I just… it'll be easier with more people."

Kagome melted.

Sure, it was a little demonic boy talking about killing people, but he was _adorable_. And just look at that fluffy tail!

"Hi! I'm Kagome," the girl greeted with a wide, warm smile. It was how the other three hunters knew they were done for—they were officially helping Shippou.

"Hi," Shippou responded, grinning back at her.

A dawning horror coming over him, Inuyasha shot Sango and Miroku a dark look. "This twerp is not going to become the fifth member of our group, right?"

"You lost your parents?" Kagome asked, raising her voice to be heard over the half-demon. When Shippou nodded his head, his bottom lip trembling, the girl opened her arms wide to offer him a hug. The little redheaded cub launched himself at her chest and held on tightly, sniffling but managing not to cry.

"See? I told you women were necessary in this endeavor," Sesshoumaru remarked confidently, ignoring the major eye-roll his comment earned from Sango.

Realizing Sesshoumaru was about to take his leave, Miroku got to his feet and approached his boss. "So, we're just going to ignore the fact that I've worked for you for a decade without ever meeting you, aren't we?" Miroku asked in the calmest possible voice.

Rather than answer, Sesshoumaru just turned around and walked away.

"Now, we're dismissed," Inuyasha muttered, getting to his feet. He looked down at Kagome hugging Shippou and had the most ridiculous feeling of jealousy—one that he shoved away. It was a _kid_. "Let's pack this up and move out."

"It's late," Sango mumbled around a yawn, stretching up into the air. The movement made a strip of her midriff visible under her shirt, and she didn't miss the way Miroku eyed it. Dropping her arms, she gave him a narrow-eyed look before jabbing her index finger is Shippou's direction. Taking this to mean that he'd be allowed to look at Sango if there wasn't a child present, Miroku grinned wider. The brunette, as if reading his mind, slapped him on his arm. Hard.

"Let's find a hotel and settle down for the night," Inuyasha decided, getting a look at the dark sky outside the parlor window. "We can start this hunt in the morning. Kagome, grab the kid."

"Yessir!" the girl responded mockingly, complete with a military salute, but she settled Shippou against her hip anyway. The two smiled at each other, and Shippou snuggled into her side. For the first time since he'd escaped his parents' murderers and tracked down Sesshoumaru, the boy felt safe. The group trudged out of Sesshoumaru's mansion and to the SUV.

That evening, Kagome dozed fitfully in one of the two large hotel beds. Shippou was curled up into a tight ball on one side of her while Sango was stretched out about a foot away on the other.

The night air around her was quiet and still. Even with the curtain drawn, pale moonlight slipped underneath the heavy fabric, letting a strip of light fall across the foot of the bed. Although there were five people in the cramped space, Kagome suddenly felt cut off from the others.

Everyone else was asleep, and even if she were to strain her ears, she couldn't hear a sound. Sango was lying so still, breathing so lightly in her sleep that the sheets didn't stir. Shippou, who had been restless at first, was now little more than a lump under the comforter. The darkness was too thick for Kagome to see Miroku sprawled in the second bed or Inuyasha sitting against the wall next to the door.

In her uneasy sleep, Kagome rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. The lightest breeze rustled her hair—odd, since all the windows were shut tight.

Startling fully awake, she listened again and wished she could hear one of the others make a noise.

Suddenly, her phone started to vibrate under her pillow.

Biting back a sheepish chuckle over how paranoid she was, even surrounded by so many people, Kagome fished around until her fingers closed over the cell phone. She pulled it out and shielded the screen with her hand, not wanting the light to wake anyone up. All thought of laughter died in her throat as she saw the two words flashing across the display—'Restricted Number.'

Hesitating, wondering if she should just let it go to voicemail, Kagome accepted the call and put the phone gently to her ear. Unlike the other times, she didn't bother saying hello.

Her ear was filled with the same static that had marked the previous five calls she'd gotten in the past couple of days. In the night, in the dark, feeling so alone in the silence, Kagome felt a shiver race down her spine. The sound was hollow and almost otherworldly, the crackle brushing against her mind.

"_Ka_…"

She breathed in sharply, struggling not to call out in case it woke the others.

"_Kagome_…"

The voice was raspy, thin, barely there. Dark. Amused. Angry.

"_Kagome, Kagome_…"

Panicking, she ended the call. Kagome fought to keep her breath under control, afraid she'd let out the keening wail trying to claw its way out of her throat. Terrified, she touched both Sango and Shippou's shoulders to make sure they were still there, to make sure they were still warm and breathing and alive.

"Kagome?"

The girl slapped her hand over her mouth to contain her squeak of surprise. This was a voice she recognized, even whispered. Allowing herself to feel soothed, Kagome responded, "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, it's me. It's alright. Everything's okay."

"Did you… Did you hear it?" she asked, meaning the call and the voice that had forced its way through the static. She needed to be sure she hadn't imagined it in some nightmarish fever.

"Yeah," the half-demon admitted, sounding close by. He had to be standing at the edge of the bed, too far away to reach her without jostling Sango. "I did."

"It sounded like…" Kagome started before breaking off, afraid to say it out loud as if that would make it real.

Thankfully, Inuyasha knew what she meant without her saying it outright. "Yeah, it sounded like him."

Naraku.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Miroku and Sango could tell something weird had happened, but neither Inuyasha nor Kagome would talk about it.<p>

Oblivious, Shippou enthusiastically dug into his plate of waffles and bacon, everything drenched with syrup. He was nestled between Sango and Kagome since Inuyasha and Miroku easily took up all of their side of the table.

"So," the redhead said around a forkful of waffle mush, "It's these thugs—"

"Thugs?" Miroku repeated, poking at his own breakfast with a kind of dignified gentlemanly manner that wasn't fooling anyone. "Can you be more specific?"

With an eye-roll, the boy gulped down the food he was chewing on. He had a paperboy style hat on his head to hide his pointy ears, and Kagome had carefully positioned him so that his fluffy tail was tucked out of sight. "A couple of mean, rotten demons," he clarified. "They killed my—m-my parents two months ago."

"Two months?" Kagome echoed, aghast. "You've been on your own for two months?"

"We're not keeping him," Inuyasha interjected, but he was promptly ignored.

"I hung around for a couple weeks, but I couldn't find a way to get back at them. I knew I needed help, so I sniffed around some. It took me this long to learn about Sesshoumaru and then track him down."

"And he immediately called us," Inuyasha concluded.

"I guess so," Shippou muttered, hesitating and jabbing at his food with the fork. With a sigh that made it obvious to Kagome that he was forcing himself to stay strong, he started to eat again, but this time much more slowly. "Their names are Hiten and Manten."

Sango absorbed all this, wrapping her hands around her cup of coffee to keep her fingers warm. Her eyes thoughtful, she glanced at the hunters. "So, these are demons, not monsters. Like Yura?"

"More dangerous than Yura," Miroku corrected, setting his silverware down. He'd lost his appetite. "Even I have heard of them—they're sadistic, with powers that can summon thunder and lightning."

"And we're going to…" Kagome trailed off, forcing herself to say the next couple of words. "We're going to kill them."

"They're murderers, Kagome," Inuyasha reminded her gently. "They killed a little kid's parents."

Sensing her discomfort, Shippou gripped Kagome's hand with his tiny fingers. "They've killed a ton of people. Everyone in the area is terrified of them. You'd be saving a lot of lives."

The waitress walked by, giving them all a distrustful glare. Thankfully, the little roadside diner was empty, so the group was confident that they hadn't been overheard as long as they remembered to keep their voices down. Still, Kagome attempted to give the waitress an open and friendly smile, not liking the feeling of being disliked even by a total stranger.

"Okay," the girl agreed reluctantly once they were alone again. "I guess I can be okay with this."

"That's the spirit!" Miroku enthused, grinning at her.

"What kind of powers do you have, kid?" Inuyasha asked Shippou.

The little boy puffed out his chest proudly. "I got a few things up my sleeve! But, well, okay, I won't be very powerful until I'm all grown up. Until then, I can do some illusions and stuff."

"Illusions?" Kagome echoed, smiling softly at how animated the fox cub was at the change in topic. "Like what?"

"I can make myself look like anyone," Shippou told her proudly. "Even you. I can even sound just like the person. Except, sometimes, I can't make my tail go away."

"That's still pretty impressive," Kagome told him seriously. "I'm just a boring human. Although, sometimes I can make stuff glow purple. I haven't exactly figured out what that's good for, though."

Inuyasha snorted, earning him a glare from Kagome, but he ignored it as he fished out his wallet. Within seconds, he had a pile of cash that he dumped on the table to pay for their meal. Shippou's hometown was at least two full days of driving away. Somehow, the half-demon figured this would give Kagome and the boy entirely too much time to bond. He better start thinking of ways to tell her that she couldn't keep him after the hunt was over.

On their way to the car, Miroku slowed down and gestured at Inuyasha to walk beside them. Once the girls and Shippou were far enough away, the human hunter settled an intense look on his best friend.

"So?" Miroku prompted.

"So what?" Inuyasha responded gruffly.

"The phone calls Kagome has been getting. We need to talk about this."

Flicking his eyes over at Miroku before quickly looking away, Inuyasha shoved his hands in his pockets and came to standstill. The hunters looked over at the SUV, watching Kagome carefully settle Shippou into the backseat. They were all laughing at something, probably a joke Sango had just told them based on the way the brunette was grinning.

"It _was_ Naraku, just like we guessed. Another call came last night, and this time he talked to Kagome," Inuyasha admitted finally, turning away from the happy scene. "He's reaching for her from the other side. It's only a matter of time before he breaks loose from hell and comes after her."

"But why Kagome?"

"She's the one who destroyed him," the half-demon pointed out practically, his face serious and more than a little worried. "I mean, I'm sure he'll go after us, too, but she's his main target. Before, he was a spirit tied to his place of death, but now…"

"He won't be tethered anymore," Miroku concluded, frowning thoughtfully. "After clawing his way out of hell, Naraku will be demon, won't he?"

The way Inuyasha didn't answer said everything. After another moment of silence, the half-demon commented softly, "I should tell her."

"Let's wait," Miroku suggested. "At least until after this hunt. Naraku's not free yet—at least he can't be, not if he's just calling her—so we have some time to prepare."

Shaking his head, Inuyasha started walking again, keeping his head lowered against the chilly wind. "It's going to be a lot harder this time around," he muttered darkly. "And we're going to need a hell of a lot more than a lighter and gasoline."

* * *

><p>In the distance, the house loomed on the horizon. Almost on cue, a flock of crows burst into flight; they became a dark cloud moving across the sky, their strained cries echoing around the poor neighborhood. The sun was already beginning to dip below the horizon, and Inuyasha wondered if he should have insisted they wait until morning. From the decrepit, mostly abandoned apartments and houses, there was an eerie feeling that the group was being watched, but Inuyasha couldn't hear or see anyone.<p>

His suspicion was confirmed when Kagome shivered and huddled in closer on herself, peering around at the empty buildings. "You guys feel that?" she asked, her blue eyes wide as they searched the boarded up windows leering down at them.

"Yeah," Inuyasha and Shippou responded immediately, both on edge—the kind that meant their fur was bristling and their hackles were raised.

There was some hesitation before Sango admitted, "No, not really," while Miroku shook his head to agree with the brunette.

"You can sense it?" the half-demon asked curiously, peering down at the girl.

Reluctantly, Kagome nodded. "It feels like there are people here, but I can't see anyone."

"Everyone has that sense of perception," Miroku assured her, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. For the first time in a long time, he seemed like the knowledgeable, comforting person Kagome had first met rather than the eccentric pervert she had been getting to know over the past month. "Yours is probably heightened by your spiritual powers."

"Oh, wonderful, more goodies that come with my freakishness," she retorted dryly.

Sango slung an arm around her best friend's shoulders and gave her a squeeze, grinning happily. "Don't worry, Kags, at least you look human."

"I feel like I've been insulted," Inuyasha grumbled, but his tone of voice made it clear he wasn't all that offended. "Let's get moving. Everyone remember the plan?"

"Two teams," Kagome began. "Me, Miroku, and Shippou go in first with you and Sango following behind as backup."

"Exactly," Inuyasha muttered, checking to make sure his shotgun was fully loaded. He knew it was, but it was a nervous habit that Kagome had noticed he did before every hunt. He snapped the gun closed with one hand, testing the weight of the weapon in his hand. No one had commented on the fact that he'd strapped his sword, looking especially massive in its leather sheath, to his back. "When Hiten and Manten see you three, they're going to underestimate us."

"I'm really tired of being considered the weak one in this partnership, just because I'm human," Miroku grumbled, checking his own weapons for ammo. He pulled out and then re-sheathed his combat knife nervously. "I'd like to point out that I have my own enhanced spiritual powers through meditation."

"You do not," Sango said dismissively with a toss of her head.

"I do!" Miroku protested, pulling several sheets of paper out of his pocket. They were covered with ancient looking scribbles that the girls couldn't read. "I can dispel spirits using these. Weak ones only, but it still comes in handy."

Kagome snatched one of the papers from him, turning it over in her hands with a scrutinizing look on her face. "Ofuda," she identified after a second, a fond smile sneaking onto her face. "My Gramps uses these on my family's shrine. Of course, his don't work."

"Mine do," Miroku insisted, taking it back and returning them all to his pocket in case he ever needed them. "You'll see one of these days."

"Alright, alright," Inuyasha interrupted with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "Miroku, you can be useful sometimes. I just meant that Hiten and Manten are cocky demons who are going to see a girl, a kid, and a human and laugh. If you three can't take them down, Sango and I will be there waiting in the wings as a surprise."

"Man, you guys talk a lot," Shippou mumbled, reaching up and grabbing Kagome's hand. He tugged at it, trying to pull her away from the group. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to get my revenge now."

As the hunters started down the street keeping to the sides of the road in the shadows, Inuyasha took Kagome by the elbow and held her back. Miroku looked over his shoulder and met Inuyasha's eyes, but the half-demon shook his head and motioned for them to keep walking. The other hunter nodded, realizing Inuyasha was going to talk to Kagome about something other than Naraku, and ushered Sango and Shippou forward.

"What is it?" Kagome asked, peering up at his face. It was freezing, but they hadn't bundled up too much, afraid it would hinder their movements in a confrontation. The girls had settled on turtlenecks and thick jackets, jeans, and boots. Inuyasha was his normal scruffy, layered self, and Kagome felt a tingly feeling looking up at his rough features. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Inuyasha answered, his fingers still gripping her elbow. He glanced at the others, his eyes following Shippou. "Look, we're going to get rid of these guys, but I don't… Don't let Shippou do it himself. He's angry, and he has a right to angry, but if he actually killed someone, it would haunt him for the rest of his life."

Although she hesitated, Kagome couldn't keep herself from asking. "How old were you? "

"About his age. A little younger," Inuyasha commented in an offhand sort of way, but Kagome could see something lurking just below the surface, something that made her want to reach out and hold onto him. "After my mom—Before Sesshoumaru took me in, I had to take care of myself. Sometimes that meant I had to—"

"It's okay," Kagome cut him off, settling on touching his cheek with the tips of her fingers. "I get it. I won't let Shippou do anything he'd regret later on."

The half-demon allowed himself to lean into her touch for a few seconds before pulling himself away, straightening up to his full height in an effort to remind himself to stay focused. "Let's go." He left her and gestured at Sango, who peeled away from the others to meet him halfway. They'd follow several meters behind.

Giving herself a shake, Kagome jogged to catch up with Miroku and Shippou. She unlatched her crossbow from her back and felt the heft of it in her hands. More than that, she felt the heft of the responsibility she was carrying. This is what she agreed to when she asked Inuyasha and Miroku if she could follow them, quitting nursing in order to save people in a different way. Not to mention the chance to take photographs around the country, to see places she'd never have a chance to visit otherwise.

"Ready?" Miroku asked when Kagome finally reached them, her breath puffing out in a small cloud in the cold air. He could guess what Inuyasha had hung back to tell her; he couldn't guess, however, what had caused the touching interaction between the two. The hunter felt a little embarrassed from witnessing it, like he'd intruded on an intimate moment.

"Yeah," Kagome agreed. She glanced down at Shippou and ruffled his hair. When her father had died when she was little, Kagome had helped her mother and Gramps by taking care of her little brother. She'd walked Souta to school, helped him with his homework, and took care of his bully problems. They'd been close even though they still bickered constantly like siblings tended to do. Spunky little Shippou reminded her of Souta—except for the tail and desire to kill someone, of course. Bright, sarcastic, funny. "Yeah, I'm ready."

It was time to take care of a new kind of bully.

* * *

><p>Miroku took point, leading the others down the hall, creeping forward as silently as he could. The front door had been unlocked, but they had broken in through the side of the old house instead. Now, they turned a couple of corners, and found themselves in the heart of the building. The hunter drew up short, peering around the doorway. Kagome hesitated behind him, placing her hand on Shippou's small chest to hold him back. In order to hold her crossbow up, however, she needed both hands.<p>

Looking around Miroku's shoulder, she studied the room. There was some loud obnoxious laughing and music pumping from a stereo system in the corner. A hulking, ugly man was sitting in a pile of things—what looked like human bones, some jewelry, and a lot of junk—while another, much more attractive, more human-looking man was nuzzling a half-naked woman on a couch. Horrified, Kagome retreated back into the hall. They'd found the Thunder Brothers.

"Okay," she said very softly, meeting Miroku's eyes. Kagome watched him look over her shoulder, his eyes suddenly wide and confused. Scared that there was another monster behind them, Kagome whirled around, only to find someone else standing where Shippou had been. "Oh my—" Miroku cut her off by covering her mouth, shaking his head sharply, not wanting to alert the demons that they were there.

A skinny man with long, red hair pulled back in a ponytail and a mischievously handsome face. It was like Shippou had suddenly aged twenty years.

He had taken the form of his father.

The only thing that gave away who he really was was his tiny fox tail, so unlike the long, sleek one Kagome guessed an adult fox demon probably had. He was angry, his hands clenched into trembling fists and blood beading on his lip where he bit down.

"I want to remind them of what they took from me," Shippou explained, his voice deeper but still hoarse, so much like his own.

Forcing herself to smile supportively, Kagome reached out and grasped his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "He was a handsome guy," she told him honestly.

"Who's out there?"

Miroku flinched and readied one of his guns. He carried three, two in holsters under his jacket, and a small one tucked into his boot. No one could say he wasn't prepared.

"I asked, _who's there_?" one of the demons repeated, lurching through the doorway and snarling. It was the ugly one.

"Hi," Kagome greeted with a small wave before lifting her crossbow, shooting the demon pointblank in the chest. It lodged in deep, but there was no purple light. Black blood pumped sluggishly from the wound, and the man stared down at it with a surprised look on his face.

"Why did you do that?" he asked blankly, reaching up and yanking the arrow out with only the smallest yelp. "You _bitch_."

"Don't call her that!" Shippou shouted, throwing out his hand. A stream of blue fire shot out of his open palm, slamming into the demon's chest and shoving him back into the room. He landed in a heap in the middle of the room, and the hunters followed him in, their weapons ready.

"Didn't we kill you already?" the other demon, the better looking one, asked casually as he stood up from the couch, leaving the half-naked woman lying there. Kagome noticed (really, she was unable to look away) that she clearly wasn't human either. Thankfully, she didn't look like much of a threat.

"Yeah, you did," Shippou snapped, stepping up beside Kagome and holding his hand out, a small blue flame dancing on his palm.

"We're going to return the favor," Miroku added, cocking the hammer back on his gun before shooting the second demon. It thudded into his shoulder, but the man didn't even flinch, choosing instead to grin angrily and toss his long, brown braid over his shoulder. "I'm going to assume you're Hiten, and this creepy piece of crap over here is Manten."

"Don't insult my brother," Hiten growled angrily, picking up a twisted staff from where it was leaning against the wall.

"It's not our fault he's that ugly," Kagome retorted, sounding a lot like Inuyasha. Miroku almost smiled.

Manten struggled to his feet, lumbering over to stand beside Hiten. The brothers cracked their knuckles almost simultaneously, and Kagome tried not to shudder at the macho display of anger. She was disgusted rather than threatened.

"I'll kill you," Shippou snarled, firing off another shot of foxfire. It curled around Hiten's chest but diffused quickly. His anger had fueled the first attack, but he was still just a child with little control over his powers. Instead, the more he let his fury take over, the less power he had over his illusion. The edges of his adult body started to shimmer and shake before it melted away, exposing the scared kid hidden underneath.

"I remember you," Hiten said, leaning forward to examine the fox cub. "You're that brat. Your mom was delicious."

Pulling a face, Kagome leveled her crossbow at the demon brother. "You ate his _mother_? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you deserve to die," she said, notching an arrow before letting it fly. Very briefly, it flared a bright purple but fizzled out as it soared past Hiten's cheek, leaving a thin cut in its wake.

"Kagome," Miroku yelled, readying another bullet in the chamber of his gun. "Again, do it again—make it stay lit up this time!"

"I still don't understand what making something purple does!" Kagome protested, pulling another arrow from the quiver strapped to her back. She drew back the string until it was taut.

"Trust me!" Miroku insisted, shooting Hiten in the shoulder and watching the way it sparked upon impact. He was wearing armor, which was why nothing had done much damage yet. "Aim for his head!"

Summoning up all the anger and fear that had been tightly wound up in her stomach, feelings that had been building since her first encounter with Naraku and intensifying with every demon and monster fought, Kagome aimed for Hiten's forehead. The demon, unthreatened, just grinned back at her, his charming smile widening until it was inhuman, showing off shark-like teeth. The moment before she released the arrow, Kagome turned the crossbow to Manten instead. Hiten's grin faltered, but it was too late.

The arrow, blazing so brightly that everyone present had to shut their eyes, slammed into Manten's forehead. The light flared brighter until it burst, glistening in the air like dust around the stunned demons. With a shimmer, the arrow dissolved, and Manten managed to blink once before disintegrating into a cloud of blood.

"Manten!" Hiten screamed, reaching for the other demon. His hands closed over his brother's empty clothes.

Several seconds of silence filled the room as Kagome struggled to figure out what had just happened, and Hiten fought to accept the fact that his brother, in the briefest moment, had disappeared.

"I will kill you," the sole Thunder Brother swore, turning on the hunters. His face closed off, he tightened his grip on his staff, and the very air around him crackled with lightening. "That was my _brother, _you rotten whore."

"And you killed my mother and father, you… you…" Shippou struggled to come up with an appropriate insult, shaking with the effort of containing his pint-sized fury.

With a roar, Hiten let his own resentment loose—lightening burst from the staff, licking the ceiling before latching onto the closest life form: the half-naked demoness he'd been caressing just minutes earlier. She screamed before being ripped apart by the energy, her blood splattering the walls.

Kagome stumbled back a step, pulling Shippou against her. She probably should have taken out Hiten, the stronger-looking brother, first, but he'd been expecting her attack; Manten was the easier target. Now, she was regretting her split second decision.

Quickly, Miroku plugged shot after shot into Hiten, hitting him in the chest in a vain attempt to slow the demon down. He backed toward Kagome. "I suggest we move this fight somewhere where we have the advantage."

"Like where?" Kagome demanded, notching another arrow and trying to summon the same perfect balance of fear and anger—unfortunately, fear was clearly winning out as another streak of lightening splintered off from Hiten toward them. The power wasn't building in her this time around.

"Wherever Inuyasha and Sango are," Miroku muttered, grabbing Kagome's hand and yanking her into the hallway, Shippou clutched to her chest. "Run!"

The three darted down the hall, barely missing the cloud of crackling light that reached out after them. It ripped into the wall as Miroku dragged Kagome around a corner. They slid across the dusty carpet, barely missing slamming into a table.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, trying to reattach the crossbow to her back one-handed as she ran. "Sango! Now would be a _great freaking time _to make your appearance!"

They took two more corners, and there, finally, was Inuyasha, crouched at the end of a dark hallway. Instead of his shotgun, he had his sword, holding it up in front of him with the most serious expression Kagome had ever seen on his face. He concentrated hard, his heavy eyebrows furrowed over intense eyes. Sango was nowhere to be seen, but Kagome wasn't too worried at the moment.

"Move!" the half-demon demanded, his grip tightening on Tessaiga.

Kagome and Miroku flattened against the wall just as Hiten stormed into view. The demon howled, his very voice shaking the walls with his rage and grief, and he pointed at the group with his staff. Lightening darted toward Kagome, but it was attracted to the metal of the sword. It raced down the blade, sparking along the way, before being absorbed by the handle. Smirking, Inuyasha flicked Tessaiga, and a shower of embers fell to the ground.

"Yeah," the hunter said, looking very at ease with the situation. It made Kagome slightly concerned about his mental state. "You're going to have to do a helluva lot better than that to get rid of us."

With a cry, Hiten launched himself at the newcomer, jabbing the spear at the half-demon. Inuyasha dodged, deflecting the attack with his sword with one hand and socking Hiten in the jaw with his other. The Thunder Brother fell back, clutching at his bruised face.

"What did I ever do to you?" the demon demanded, his voice low and grating with emotion.

"Nothing," Inuyasha replied honestly. "But you screwed around in the wrong part of the country; you killed this kid's parents, and Sesshoumaru just isn't going to let crap like that happen under his nose."

"So the demon lord can't clean up his own messes," Hiten growled.

"He doesn't have to; he has us," Sango said, stepping out of a doorway with Hiraikotsu raised over her head. With her own battle cry, the brunette brought the bone boomerang down on the demon's head with enough force to knock him to the floor. "And you're dirty scum, asshole."

Grinning roguishly, Inuyasha brandished his sword again before slicing down, cutting neatly through the lightening staff. A beat passed before a line of blood from Hiten's forehead down across his chest burst open, his face stunned. He breathed in slowly before collapsing, blood pooling under his body.

Not to be outdone, Shippou squirmed in Kagome's arms until she dropped him. Scrambling over Hiten's legs, the fox cub delivered a kick to the dead demon's face. "I hope you rot in hell," he growled. It was only then that Kagome realized he was crying, and she quickly walked over to pick him up.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

Sniffling, Shippou buried his face in her neck, muffling his sobs. "I will be now," he whispered back.

* * *

><p>"It's a purifying light," Inuyasha explained. He and Kagome were sitting on a park bench watching as Sango and Miroku roughhoused with Shippou on a nearby playground. They'd loaded everything back into the SUV and took off, unsure of where to head to now. "That purple glow that you have? It purifies evil. That's how you took out Manten with one arrow."<p>

Kagome leaned back, loving the feel of the sun on her face. It was cold, officially winter, but the weak sun had broken through the thin clouds overhead. "And it runs in the family?" she asked, smiling faintly when Sango began pushing Shippou on a swing.

"Sometimes it skips generations," the half-demon said thoughtfully. "You said you have a family shrine, right?"

"Passed down on my dad's side for hundreds of years," Kagome confirmed. She glanced down at the small space between them, inching her hand toward his, letting her pinky brush against his. "Maybe I was made for this demon hunting stuff."

"Whether you were or not, I'm glad you're here."

"Why Inuyasha," Kagome said with a laugh, twining her fingers with his. "That was such a nice thing to say."

He kept his eyes straight ahead, but Kagome could see the faintest blush on his cheeks. "Yeah, I do that sometimes."

They let the minutes pass in silence, content to sit next to each other on such a nice winter day, holding hands as if they were a completely normal couple. It was easy to forget that he was half demon, she had priestess blood, and there were so many hard topics they needed to talk about—easy to forget, that is, for a very small moment. They couldn't hold it off forever.

"So…" Kagome said. Inuyasha, sensing trouble, tried to retract his hand, but Kagome held on. She stroked his rough palm with her thumb. "Shippou?"

"He can't stay with us," he muttered. "It's not safe."

"I know," Kagome consented, sounding more than a little sad. "Sesshoumaru won't take him in, will he?"

Inuyasha shook his head to indicate the negative. "Trust me, we don't want him to take the pup in anyway."

"I think I might have an idea."

"I'm listening."

"When Sango and I lived in the city, our landlady… I have no proof, but I think she might—I don't know, but I think Kaede might be able to accept Shippou as a fox demon, take him in and raise him and protect him, you know?"

"We can give it a shot," Inuyasha agreed.

"So…" Kagome repeated, swallowing hard, knowing that there was an even tougher thing they needed to discuss. "Naraku?"

The half-demon took a deep breath, actually a little relieved that Kagome had brought it up. It would feel good to get it out of the way. "He'll come back. He's going to come after you."

"Did you know that would happen?" Kagome asked, her voice hesitant. It had just dawned on her that maybe that was why Inuyasha and Miroku had let her come along, the only reason they had accepted her joining them so easily. Was it just a need to protect her? Was that all he felt toward—

"It's a possibility with every demon and monster we send to hell," Inuyasha admitted, interrupting her spiraling thought process. This time he was the one to hold onto her hand when she tried to pull away. "Miroku and I didn't figure out what was happening with Naraku until you started getting those calls, and we didn't know for sure until he actually talked to you that night."

"What are we going to do about it?"

"We'll figure it out when it happens," he promised. Before he could second-guess his actions, Inuyasha leaned over and pressed his lips to her temple, lingering for several heartbeats. Her heart was hammering—hard—and he could hear every pound of it. Soon, their hearts were matched beat for beat. When he finally drew away, he found Kagome's big, luminous eyes on him. "What are we going to do about _this_?"

"Dunno," Kagome said with a grin. "I guess we'll figure it out when it happens."

"Smartass."

"You know you like it."

"…Yeah," Inuyasha admitted, slinging his arm around her slim shoulders and pulling her into his side. They continued to watch the other three play, understanding that things were just beginning.


	8. Blackout

In this chapter, I give you a mystery! Don't worry if you're confused in the beginning; Kagome has no idea what's going on either.

Also, I realized that this chapter has a very "Season Finale!" kind of a feel to it. :3

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Blackout

* * *

><p>The early morning sun pushed its way past the curtains, falling across Kagome's face in that annoying way that only happens when a person wants to sleep longer. Rolling over, she buried her face into her pillow with a muffled groan. A beat passed as she kicked her groggy mind into gear. It was several minutes before it registered that she was wearing her jeans and a sweater to bed—which was not only uncomfortable, but also way too warm; even stranger, she was still in her tennis shoes. Drowsily, Kagome withdrew from the sheets and sat up. She paused mid-yawn, realizing that there were several things wrong.<p>

The room was empty.

Confused, the girl studied her surroundings with wide-eyed surprise. Not only was she alone, but she wasn't even in a hotel. In fact, she was in what looked suspiciously like someone's apartment. It was obviously lived-in; there were personal knickknacks and books stacked everywhere, a small desk with an expensive looking laptop on it, and a chic-if-somewhat-boring decor, mostly done in white and reds.

Stumbling out of bed, Kagome tripped and landed on her elbows. The sheets were tangled around her ankle, but she worked quickly to free herself. Her elbows smarting— she was pretty sure she had rug burn— she clambered to her feet. "Sango?" she called out, anxious and more than a little worried. The bedroom she was in was small, and through the doorway she could see a kitchen and a small living room. Everything was meticulously tidy. "Miroku? ...Inuyasha?"

No answer.

For the life of her, she could not remember why she was in this apartment. Nothing looked familiar. Starting to panic, Kagome ran toward the hallway, only to stumble to a stop. There were picture frames propped up all over the desk. In most of them, there was a beautiful woman with pale skin and serious gray eyes. This stranger smiled patiently at Kagome from atop a chestnut horse; in front of a hospital with a stethoscope around her neck; singing in a choir; and doling out food in a soup kitchen. There were other people in other photos; the most striking was a faded photograph of a teenage girl who looked—Kagome was unnerved to see—like a much younger version of her landlady, Kaede.

Even more unsettling was the fact that the woman with gray eyes looked the same age in every picture, but she was dressed in clothing from different eras. Beneath a doctor's white coat, she was wearing bellbottoms and a tie-dyed shirt. In the soup kitchen, the woman's long hair was pulled back, and she was in a cardigan twin-set, an old-fashioned A-line skirt, and saddle shoes. Many of the photos were faded and creased, obviously decades old.

"Huh," Kagome murmured, picking up one of the frames to examine it closer. "That's a little creepy."

The woman was beautiful but unfamiliar— mostly, that is. A nagging feeling in the back of her brain told Kagome she should recognize this person, but in that way that a person vaguely remembers someone they went to school with as a child or passed every day in the grocery store.

And somehow Kagome was in her apartment without any memory of _why _she was in her apartment.

Her panicked breathing and thudding heart slowing down now that she was more awake, Kagome realized that all she needed to do was get a hold of the hunters, and everything could be straightened out. A plan firmly set in mind, Kagome searched her pockets for her cell phone; not finding it, she left the room hoping to see it somewhere else in the apartment.

After finding nothing, she gave up with a frustrated growl low in her throat, reminiscent of Inuyasha. Even if Kagome could find a house phone, she (like almost everyone else today) didn't know anyone's phone number by heart except for her mother's and her own.

"I guess I could call Mama," the girl said uncertainly, only a little concerned by the fact that she was talking to herself. "But first I need a payphone."

Since she was already dressed, Kagome left the apartment for the hallway. A rustling across the hall drew Kagome's attention, and she saw an old woman entering the apartment catty-corner to the one she'd just left.

"Oh, hello dear," the woman greeted with a pleasant smile, barely glancing up from putting her house key in her purse. A second later, the smile froze on her wrinkled face, and she squinted at Kagome. "You're not Kikyou."

Kikyou?

Ah, that must be the name of the owner of the apartment, the woman with the serious eyes.

"No, I'm not," Kagome answered, slapping on her most friendly smile. Being her, it came naturally, even in her bewilderment. "I'm her, uh… cousin, Kagome."

Kikyou's neighbor scrutinized her for a few seconds longer before nodding, seeming to accept this as the truth. Still, she kept her distance from Kagome, as if she was afraid of getting too close. "You do look like you could be related," the old woman agreed grudgingly. There were several long seconds of awkward silence, and the neighbor seemed to be rolling her next words around in her mind before being willing to speak them. Finally, she asked, "Where is she?"

"She?" Kagome echoed, her brow furrowed with confusion. Oh, right, Kikyou, the owner of the apartment she'd just walked out of. "Kikyou," and the name actually felt familiar on her tongue, "She, um, Kikyou had to go out… out to the store to pick up some things."

Wow, Inuyasha was right. Kagome was a truly awful liar. She really needed to work on that.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay, dear," the old woman told her sweetly after another weird pause between the two women, the conversation very unnatural to both of them. "If you need anything, I'm right across the hall. My name is Urasue."

With her brightest smile, Kagome thanked the neighbor and descended the stairs, making sure to memorize how to get back. There wasn't a phone in the lobby, so Kagome walked outside. The street looked normal, but she didn't recognize any of the nearby businesses.

Trying to be logical about it, Kagome scrambled to figure out what the last thing she remembered was. Immediately, an image of Inuyasha slammed to the forefront of her mind. Him, leaning in close, his breath warm on her cheeks, his eyes like molten gold—but then he jerked away, surprised as Shippou came around the corner.

That was right; they'd gone back to Sango and Kagome's old building in the city to ask Kaede the landlady if she could take in the fox demon. As suspected, Kaede hadn't reacted at all to the fact that the little boy had a tail, which prompted the question of how and why she knew about the supernatural. Politely, Kagome hadn't asked.

That had been Tuesday. What day was today?

In the next ten minutes, at least a dozen people greeted Kagome with friendly waves and smiles. She definitely wasn't in the city anymore; only a small town would have people this nice. Finally, she spotted one of those little newspaper stands across the street. She ran over and crouched down, peering through the glass at the front page. It was only a local publication, but it had the date on it.

It was Sunday.

It was _Sunday_.

"Oh no," Kagome said faintly, her stomach clenching uncomfortably. She couldn't remember the last four days. As another person walked by her, Kagome reached out and touched his elbow desperately. "Excuse me, sir. Could I borrow some spare change to use at a payphone? I lost my wallet, and I need to call my friend's house to see if I left it there."

"You don't have a cell phone?" the stranger asked, his eyebrows quirked in surprise.

"No," Kagome responded, almost apologetically. Strike that, she actually did sound sorry—lying made her feel like an awful person. "Well, not anymore. I dropped it in a lake when I went camping last week."

"You have terrible luck," the man told Kagome, reaching into his pocket and jingling around for a bit before pulling out a handful of change.

"Don't I know it!" she agreed, taking the money gratefully. "Thank you so much. Have a good day!" she said cheerfully.

"You, too," he said, smiling again before walking away. If he had a hat, Kagome was sure he would have tipped it politely like they did in old movies. You know, back when everyone was still nice, friendly, courteous, and strangers didn't get angry when asked for favors.

Seriously, where the hell was she?

Ah yes, the newspaper! Kagome turned around and studied it again. _The Rochester Times_, she read, something finally recognizable. Years ago, she and Sango had driven through the town while on a road trip; Rochester was about five hours away from home.

Now, to find a phone.

It took her nearly half an hour, and even though the sun was rising steadily in the sky, it kept getting colder. Whatever had happened that made her forget the last four days and wake up somewhere she didn't know, Kagome had at least been smart enough to dress warmly. Still, she snuggled into her sweater, trying not to think about the fact that she could have been wearing the same clothes for days. In what had to be the town square, Kagome found a phone booth. It— to her cynical city-dwelling surprise— not been vandalized.

Dropping the stranger's coins into the slot, Kagome pressed the phone to her ear and quickly dialed her mother's phone number.

"Hello?"

The girl breathed out a sigh of relief, instantly soothed by Mrs. Higurashi's sweet and comforting voice. "Hi, Mama."

"Kagome, dear! Why what a treat, hearing from you twice in one week."

Oh, thank goodness; her mother might actually have some answers for her. "This is going to sound really strange, but, um, I can't— can you tell me about the last time we talked?"

There was a pause as Kagome's mother absorbed the question, understandably confused. For over a month now, her daughter had been secretive and distracted whenever she called. At times, there were strange noises in the background, and once Mrs. Higurashi had heard a man interrupt the call to tell Kagome they needed to get back on the road. Of course Mrs. Higurashi trusted her daughter, but just like any other mother, she was concerned by the fact that Kagome and her best friend had quit their jobs and moved out of their apartment with only a vague explanation. Now, her daughter seemed to have amnesia. It was, quite honestly, like a soap opera.

"Sure, dear," Kagome's mother answered, her voice carefully light and airy. "You called me two days ago. You told me you were still in the city visiting with Kaede, but you were on your way to Rochester with your new friends to see a concert or something."

None of this sounded familiar, but Kagome was relieved to hear that up until forty-eight hours earlier, she'd still been with the group. Also, if her mother knew about Rochester, then the other hunters had to as well. "Did I say what kind of a concert it was?"

"A violinist," Mrs. Higurashi replied, just as a mechanical voice told Kagome that her time was coming to an end unless she inserted more money.

Kagome fed in some change, holding back just enough to make one more call. "Thanks, Mama, that helps a lot. I lost my cell phone— do you have Sango's number written down anywhere?"

"Of course I do, let me just…" There were some rustling that told Kagome her mother was shuffling papers around. After several long, precious seconds, Mrs. Higurashi rattled off a number. Kagome repeated it back to her twice to confirm she knew it, having nothing to write it down with.

"Thanks, Mama. I'll call again soon!"

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" her mother asked warily.

"Later," Kagome promised. "I have to go now, but I'll tell you everything soon."

"I love you, dear, please stay safe."

"Love you, too," she answered before hanging up. Mumbling Sango's phone number to herself, Kagome picked the phone back up and fed in the last of her change. It only rang twice before someone answered.

"Hello?" a very suspicious but important voice greeted.

"Sango!" Kagome said, relieved. "It's me."

"Kagome?" Sango sounded more than a little surprised. "Where are you? Are you okay?" There was some commotion on her side of the line, and Kagome could hear other people talk excitedly before Sango cut them off with a sharp, "I've got this, Inuyasha, pay attention to the road!" And then, her voice softer, the brunette said to the half-demon, "It's okay, she's fine."

"Is everyone there? You know, except me, I mean."

"Yeah, I'm with Inuyasha and Miroku and…" Sango trailed off, not finishing her sentence and obviously distracted. "Where are you?" she repeated her earlier question.

"Rochester," Kagome explained. "I woke up in some apartment. I can't remember anything since _Tuesday_."

"You're still in Rochester?"

Getting frustrated, Kagome grumbled, "Yeah, I just told you that. What's going on? Sango, I'm freaking out here; I think I have amnesia or something."

"I'm pretty sure amnesia doesn't work like that," Sango responded, sounding almost amused. "Look, everything's going to be okay. Stay where you are, and we'll head back to Rochester right now. It'll take us a few hours, though."

"Did you," Kagome started to say before having to cut herself off, her voice thick with emotion. She forced herself to breathe deeply before speaking again. "Did you guys just leave me here?"

"Of course not! Listen, we—"

But that same mechanical voice of the operator cut Sango off, asking for more change from Kagome if she wished to continue the call. Having nothing left, Kagome just stood there until the dial tone took over. Just as confused as when she first woke up, she hung up and let herself out of the phone booth.

Forcing herself to wave and smile back at everyone who greeted her, Kagome found her way to a nearby bench and collapsed on it. She needed to keep herself busy, or she'd panic again. That, or she'd think more about that image of Inuyasha leaning close enough to kiss her. That had been Tuesday, right? Had he tried again since then? Anxiously, Kagome wondered if the half-demon had kissed her, and she couldn't even remember.

There it was. She was starting to panic.

Looking around her, Kagome spotted a folded up newspaper on the far end of the bench. She quickly picked it up, realizing that it was that day's issue, the one she had spotted in the newsstand. Her hands now busy, the panic receded, and Kagome browsed the articles. Since it was local, it wasn't very big, but there were some reprints of national news. It was the front page that caught her attention. There was a large black and white photo on it; pictured was a street with a huge, yawning sinkhole in the middle of it. Police tape and traffic cones lined the edge to hold back a small crowd. The picture was much bigger than the paragraph beneath it.

"Surprise sinkhole swallows three cars," Kagome read the title out loud. "Two believed to be dead." Intrigued, she read the rest of the article, astonished when she came across a name she actually knew. At least, one that she knew now.

_At 9:53 P.M. Saturday, a sinkhole measuring thirteen meters across opened on State Street in downtown Rochester. Witnesses report that three cars immediately disappeared inside. Police say that seismic activity is believed to be involved in this disaster. According to a witness, shortly before the sinkhole opened, town doctor Kikyou Tendo, 31, and an unknown female were talking in the street where the sinkhole opened. It is unconfirmed by officials if these two women are missing or accounted for._

Now, Kagome was still new to this hunting thing, but a giant sinkhole seemed highly suspicious. It was also a mighty big coincidence that she'd woken up that morning in the missing woman's apartment.

With a few hours to kill until her ride got there—not to mention the fact that she had no money and no phone—Kagome decided it was time to do a little detective work. On her way back to the apartment building, she passed several more overly-friendly people. After the thirtieth smile and wave, she wondered if maybe the town itself was the supernatural mystery. Was everyone trapped in some kind of time-loop? Was she actually _in the past_? It would explain one or two of Kikyou's outfits in the photos, as well as the old-fashioned atmosphere that Kagome had only ever seen in old films.

Except, she reminded herself, the year had been correct in the date on the newspaper. Plus, the stranger earlier knew about cell phones, and the paper had national news articles that she knew were pretty recent.

It was just a nice, normal, small town— a little creepy, maybe, but not supernatural.

She let herself back into Kikyou's apartment and took her time looking around. Before, when she'd been searching for her phone, she hadn't really paid attention to the owner's belongings. Now, she noticed that there was a violin case propped up on one of the chairs.

Kagome had told her mother that they were going to Rochester to see a violinist.

"Since I don't really believe in coincidences anymore, I'm going to say that we were on our way here to see Kikyou," she announced to the empty room, convinced that it wasn't silly to talk to yourself if no one saw you do it. Kagome crouched down and looked under the furniture, trying to get some idea as to why this woman was so special. Had someone opened the sinkhole _on purpose_ to target Kikyou?

It sounded like this woman had as bad of luck with the supernatural as she did. Kagome could sympathize.

A loud knocking startled Kagome, and she snapped upright. Peeking through the peep hole, she found a distorted, close-up view of an old woman's face—Urasue. Releasing a breath of relief, Kagome opened the door.

"Hello again," Kagome greeted her, sheepishly trying to quiet her pounding heart. Hunting had made her way too paranoid.

"Hi, dear, I happened to make too much food and thought you might like some leftovers," the neighbor said, holding up a bowl of steaming soup.

Eyeing it hungrily, Kagome realized that she (literally) could not remember the last time she ate. As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. The girl started to reach for the bowl before stopping herself, her instincts balking at the idea of eating something Urasue had prepared. She couldn't explain it. Her heart started to hammer, and Kagome forced herself to retract her hand, feeling like she often did in the middle of a fight—like she was prey. "O-Oh, thank you but no thank you," Kagome mumbled, bewildered at her own reaction to the old woman's kindness.

Urasue smiled sweetly and pressed the bowl closer to Kagome. "Are you sure? You look hungry."

"I actually just ate," Kagome lied, knowing that even if she didn't understand it, she should trust her gut. It had kept her alive up to this point anyway. Now that she realized that Urasue made her uncomfortable, the girl struggled to figure out why. "Did you read the newspaper this morning?" she asked suddenly, remembering their stilted conversation upon meeting.

"I read it every morning with my coffee," the neighbor answered slowly, finally lowering the bowl of soup. Her smile seemed tight and fake to Kagome now, who fought to stay calm and not slam the door in the woman's face.

"So you would've read that they think Kikyou fell into the sinkhole," Kagome pointed out, her hand tightening on the doorknob.

Urasue hesitated, the smile slipping much closer to a frown. "Newspapers get things wrong."

"Sometimes," Kagome admitted, but she was determined. "Why didn't you mention it when you asked me about Kikyou this morning?"

Pursing her lips disapprovingly, Urasue took a step back. "I saw Kikyou around midnight, so I knew she was alright. The sinkhole was earlier yesterday evening. Are you sure you're her sister?"

"Of course I am!" Kagome said immediately, her heart beating faster with the lie.

"A-ha!" the lady shouted, startling Kagome even more when she jabbed a finger in the girl's direction. "This morning you said you were her _cousin_, not sister!"

Oh.

Crap.

"Why would I say that?" Kagome demanded, avoiding Urasue's piercing stare. "I'm her younger sister. I told you that this morning; you must have heard me wrong."

"My hearing is just fine," the old woman retorted, taking a step back. "I'm going to call the police."

"And tell them what?"

"That there is some strange girl in my neighbor's apartment," Urasue snapped, retreating into her own home before slamming the door shut behind her.

Officially panicking, Kagome ran into the hallway and thundered down the stairs, not caring that she'd left the apartment door swinging wide open. Charging through the lobby, Kagome practically fell into the street, upsetting some of the people walking past the building. Quickly, she walked away in the opposite direction than she'd gone that morning, worried that at any moment, she'd hear sirens. Same as always, Kagome had made a complete mess of things.

Trying to sort it all out, she went through what she knew.

On Tuesday, the hunters had dropped Shippou off with Kaede. Inuyasha had also tried to kiss Kagome—or at least, that's how it seemed to her hazy recollection. According to Mrs. Higurashi, the group had stayed in the city until Friday, when they left to go to Rochester to see a violinist; Kagome assumed this was Kikyou. Considering Inuyasha had shown no appreciation for music in the past, she could only guess that either they had heard of something supernatural going on in the town or else Sesshoumaru had assigned them a case. Saturday evening, a sinkhole opened with Kikyou and another woman nearby. Late Saturday night, Urasue said she saw Kikyou alive and well. Sunday morning, Kagome woke up fully dressed in Kikyou's empty apartment, the last four days a total blank in her memory.

Nothing, _nothing _made sense.

She was in her own freaking mystery novel, and unfortunately, Kagome was more of a romantic comedy kind of girl.

"Are you okay, miss?" a man asked as he passed her, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Kagome mumbled, a little annoyed by the town's friendliness. Was this how she seemed to everyone? Just as the man turned away, Kagome tapped him on the shoulder. "Wait—could you tell me where State Street is?"

"Ah, an out-of-towner," the stranger exclaimed as if he was personally touched at the prospect of someone visiting Rochester. After orienting himself, he pointed in the direction Kagome had been heading already. "Three blocks north, a left, and then an immediate right. Are you looking for the sinkhole?"

Nodding, she thanked him before walking away, not caring anymore if she seemed rude. Following his directions, she rounded a corner and almost stepped into a police officer.

"Can't go this way, ma'am," the cop muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and eyeing the girl sternly.

Feeling like Inuyasha, Kagome almost rolled her eyes and snapped at him; he was probably one of only three policemen in Rochester. Lies were starting to come to her easier now that she'd tried a few out. She wasn't sure yet if this was a good or bad development. "I'm sorry; I lost my wallet, and I was here last night—"

As if she'd been struck by lightning, Kagome snapped her mouth shut and straightened up. The moment she'd said it, she realized that it wasn't a lie; she _had_ been there last night. Like someone had pressed a 'play' button in her head, the memory reformed right before her eyes.

_With a shiver, Kagome tucked her hands into her jean pockets. She had still been dressed when Kikyou came to the hotel, but the other woman had failed to mention the fact that "Can I talk to you alone for a minute?" meant that Kikyou wanted them to go for a long walk in the chilly evening air. Now, Kagome desperately wished she'd grabbed her coat or her scarf._

"_Where are we going?" she asked, glancing around at the deserted streets. The small town had emptied out quickly; there wasn't an official curfew, but it looked like most people went to bed early. It wasn't even ten yet, but Kagome had seen only three people since leaving the hotel. On top of being chilly, clouds were covering the quarter moon, and the darkness pressed in on her._

"_Almost there," Kikyou promised, tossing a look over her shoulder at Kagome. She'd been walking several steps ahead the whole way, and even though they were practically the same height, her stride seemed a lot longer and smoother than Kagome's._

_Actually, everything about the other woman was other-worldly. Her skin was pale, her eyes dark and knowing, and her hair was as impeccable as Sesshoumaru's. Kagome knew that if she were to touch that pale skin, it would be cold as ice._

_Kikyou was dead._

_It was the whole reason why they'd gone to Rochester in the first place—to track down Kikyou. Once they'd arrived, though, no one in the group, not even Inuyasha, could mesh what they were seeing with what they knew. This woman had been raised from the dead by some unknown sorcerer, yet she was so charming and sophisticated._

"_Zombies are weird," Miroku had explained to the girls on the drive to Rochester a day ago. "They'll act completely normal, but as soon as they're threatened—" and here he had snapped his fingers in front of Kagome's nose, making her jump. "They'll snap your neck or tear your arms clean off."_

_Too late, Kagome wondered if she should have agreed to go with Kikyou alone, late at night. Friday afternoon and all of Saturday, the woman had been so nice—calm and friendly, showing the hunters around the town. She'd built a life there as the town doctor. Of course, she'd explained, being a zombie meant she had to pick up and move every few years to make sure no one noticed you didn't age. She'd spent decades doing this, always on the run, always reinventing herself. At the time, Kikyou had laughed it off, the chuckle throaty but feminine—soothing, almost._

_Kagome didn't notice Kikyou had stopped until she ran into the woman's back—the girl stumbled back a step, only a little freaked out by how chilly Kikyou's flesh had been through her thin shirt. Since she was dead, Kikyou didn't have to dress for the weather._

"_Here," the doctor said, turning to face Kagome._

Here_ what?_

_Looking around, Kagome didn't understand what was so special about that spot. They were in the middle of a deserted street, standing next to a few parked cars under a lamppost. The only building nearby with its lights still on was a barber's shop—inside, Kagome could see an older man sweeping the floor, his back to the window._

"_Kagome, are you happy?"_

"_What?" the girl answered intelligently, blinking at the dead woman with wide, confused eyes._

"_Are you _happy_?" Kikyou repeated, her narrow mouth set in a frown. "Traveling the country with your friends, saving people, always on the move, always making a difference in the world."_

"_Yes," Kagome answered honestly, struggling to follow the conversation. "Kikyou, are you okay?"_

"_No."_

_The answer was as cold as the speaker's skin. It startled Kagome, and she took a step back, her brow furrowing as she noticed just how angry the other woman was. Really, though, Kikyou wasn't doing anything, she was just standing there. But she was so quiet, so still. Not having to breathe, she could have been a statue, and Kagome suddenly felt very vulnerable._

"…_Kikyou?" Kagome whispered, torn between wanting to help and needing to flee._

"_I want that; I want what you have," the woman explained, her voice strained with longing. They were almost nose to nose, and Kagome realized that she couldn't feel any warmth radiating off this woman. The hunters had been sent to put Kikyou out of her misery, and for the first time, Kagome was starting to see just how miserable she really was. "I want," the zombie continued, her tone darker now, "To be you."_

_Trying to lighten the mood, Kagome forced herself to chuckle. It came out dry and cracked, betraying her anxiety. "Well, I'm already me, so…"_

"_I really am sorry, Kagome, but I—I have to do this."_

_Do what?_

"_Do what?" the girl made herself ask, hating the way the words trembled on her tongue. She had no phone, no weapon; everyone else was back in the hotel, suspecting nothing of this woman—of this monster. Kikyou had fooled them all._

_Instead of turning into some feral, inhuman version of herself—how Kagome had imagined a threatened zombie to look—Kikyou merely glanced over Kagome's shoulder, meeting the eyes of someone in the distance. There was a rumble, and Kagome felt like there was thunder in her ears, blotting out everything, even her own thoughts. The earth shuddered under their feet, and Kagome screamed, feeling herself tumble into a free-fall as the very concrete split. She couldn't see Kikyou anymore; she couldn't see anything._

_All it was, was black._

"Ma'am?" someone was asking, shaking Kagome's shoulder. It was the police officer, his earlier disapproving frown now very concerned. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

"I," Kagome began, touching her fingers to her temples. Her head was throbbing, like she'd just relived the whole terrifying experience. She'd been the unknown woman talking with Kikyou when the sinkhole opened. More than that, she'd been the target. "I feel dizzy."

"Here," the officer said, taking her by the shoulder and helping her toward the curb. He lowered her down to the concrete, hovering overhead. "Put your head between your knees and breathe deep," he advised, rubbing his hand between her shoulder blades.

"Thanks," Kagome mumbled. She felt shell-shocked—hell, she _was _shell-shocked. A zombie had tried to kill her. It didn't explain everything—including how she ended up in Kikyou's apartment or why the other hunters had abandoned her—but it was something. Kikyou was a zombie. Kikyou had been alive for fifty years, risen from the dead, living among people as if she were _normal_. How'd they known to go to Rochester? "Kaede."

"Excuse me?" the policeman asked, still rubbing her back awkwardly. He was looking around desperately, but no one in the small crowd that had gathered offered to take over.

"Nothing," she said, but inside, her mind was a mess. Seeing the sinkhole, unlocking the memory of the night before, had been like hitting a domino— it was knocking into other memories, and everything was tumbling into a muddied heap. Now she remembered talking with Kaede, that late Tuesday night was the first time she'd heard of Kikyou. The group was in the apartment, helping Shippou settle in, when Kagome had seen an old photograph of a beautiful woman hanging on the wall.

After some prodding, Kaede explained that it was her older sister, a young doctor who had died over fifty years earlier in an automobile accident. Kikyou, the kindest woman you could ever meet. It wasn't until Wednesday evening that Kaede broke down, admitting to the group that Kikyou had been raised from the dead, that her sister was roaming the earth as some empty shell of her former self. She didn't know who had done it, but Kikyou had sent a letter a few months earlier explaining that she had settled nearby in Rochester, that she hoped her sister would pay her a visit.

_What she's living is not a life._

_The Kikyou I knew is gone—it's just some imitation wearing my sister's face._

_If something were to happen, she could hurt someone._

And so, the group had packed up the SUV on Friday morning and arrived in Rochester that afternoon after promising to take care of it, for Kaede. Except, when they'd arrived, Kikyou didn't fight them or take off. She welcomed the hunters into her office, finishing up with a patient—a little girl, only ten years old. The way the woman handled the child was so tender, so caring.

_I always have to wear gloves_, she'd explained with a friendly laugh. _Sometimes, I hold a warm towel before an appointment, so I don't startle them with how cold my hands are._

"Ma'am, do you need to go to a hospital?" the policeman asked, at a loss for what to do with this pretty girl. Kagome had curled in on herself, just letting the memories come, letting them flood all her senses. A very small, distant part of her wondered what the end of this memory trail would be like—what was in that hole she'd fallen into, how had she escaped?

Before she could get a hold of herself, someone was grabbing her by the shoulders, jerking her to her feet roughly.

"Kagome, dear, there you are!" the person was saying, their creaky voice sickly sweet but the grip on her flesh strong enough to bruise. "It's okay," they told the officer. "I'll take care of this."

Stumbling along, Kagome looked over and found Urasue guiding her out of the crowd, a murderous look on her old face.

Urasue.

_Urasue_.

"No!" Kagome shouted, jerking away from the old woman, tripping over her own feet in her urgency to get away. That very first night in town, Kikyou had introduced the group to her neighbor, an old woman whose hand had sparked purple when Kagome shook it. Who had turned hungry, mean eyes on Kagome the moment she sensed the girl's power. _Urasue_.

"I don't know how you got out, but I can easily send you right back in," she hissed at Kagome now, snatching the girl's hand and dragging her along in her wake. They passed people, many of whom stopped mid-wave to stare at them.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kagome insisted, scratching at the wrinkled hand, clawing in a desperate attempt to get away. No matter how frail Urasue may have looked, her grip was vice-like, and Kagome was panicking.

"Hell!" the old woman screamed. "I will send you back to hell! How did you get out?"

"I don't remember," Kagome swore, honestly, pleadingly. "I woke up this morning, and I didn't remember anything."

"Of course not," Urasue snapped, shoving Kagome roughly into an alleyway, no longer caring if anyone saw the confrontation. "When I shoved you in that hole, I took some of your memory and your power, fed it to Kikyou."

Feigning weakness, Kagome slumped against the brick wall, panting heavily. "_You _raised Kikyou from the dead fifty years ago?"

"She was my personal doctor, and she had to go and get herself killed. Ladies back then did not drive cars—but she did. Kikyou has always been so independent, so self-sufficient. I think being tied to me all these years has finally broken her." Suddenly, Urasue started to mutter to herself, clearly not caring that Kagome overheard her. "It was so easy to get her to lure you away from your friends. So much spiritual power! I needed it—all I had to do was convince her that she could finally be free; all she had to do to get a life was to steal yours."

"You never intended to let Kikyou free, did you?" Kagome asked, her voice soft as she started to put it all together. Urasue had dangled independence in front of Kikyou's eyes, a woman who had been ripped from the afterlife and forced to follow this old woman around, answering every beck and call. Uprooting herself every time she'd settled, every time she had some semblance of a life.

"Of course not," Urasue admitted, a twisted smile distorting her face. "I don't know what Kikyou said to your friends to get them to leave Rochester that night, but I knew they wouldn't stay gone for long— not with the way that demon boy looked at you. I knew they'd be back. I'd just have to kill them myself and take back what was mine."

"Kikyou doesn't belong to you," Kagome protested. "She's a person!"

"She's a zombie," the sorceress corrected harshly, letting go of Kagome's wrist in favor of gesturing along with her words. "Don't forget, she tried to kill you."

"She was just desperate," Kagome said, her voice strained—a part of her pitied Kikyou, but there was still a large part that remembered the woman had in fact lured her into a trap. "Why me?"

"Your _power_," Urasue insisted. "I could use it, I could give it to Kikyou, and she could help me wipe out all my enemies, purifying any demon that stood in my way."

Bracing herself, Kagome kicked off against the brick and lunged at Urasue, wrapping her fingers around the old woman's throat. "Here," the girl hissed, "Have some for yourself!"

Even with her fear and her anger, Kagome still didn't have control over her inherited spiritual powers. It flared inside of her, flooded from her fingers into Urasue, but all it did was make the old sorceress's skin sizzle with a small howl of pain. Knowing she couldn't do anything without an arrow or some other projectile, Kagome used the moment as a distraction to throw the old woman to the ground. She darted out of the alley, crashing into a pedestrian. Without apologizing, she took off down the street, wobbling only a little from foot to foot.

There was a commotion behind her as Urasue followed, but Kagome pushed her way past everyone, finding herself in front of a hotel.

And there, standing in a huddle, were her friends.

Plus Kikyou.

"I need a gun!" Kagome screamed in their direction, running full tilt.

Sango was the first to spot her, her troubled expression instantly melting into one of relief and then, finally, confusion. "A gun?"

"A really big one," Kagome insisted, struggling to catch her breath.

"Kagome?" Kikyou asked, taking a step toward her, her face as neutral as ever. "Are you alright?"

"I'll shoot you later," Kagome promised bitterly, holding her hand out towards Inuyasha and wiggling her fingers. "Shotgun, now."

To her extreme frustration, the other hunters just stood there, blinking blankly at her. There was a crash nearby, and Kagome looked over to find Urasue shoving her way past several people, a thunderous look twisting her old face. Still, Miroku gaped at her, while Inuyasha looked like he wanted to reach out to Kagome but was holding himself back.

"Kagome!" Sango shouted. "Where have you been? Kikyou told us—"

"Later!" Kagome cut her off, finally giving up and stepping towards Inuyasha, taking matters into her own hands. Confusing everyone, especially the half-demon, Kagome reached into his opened jacket and felt around until she found his holster—she pulled out a pistol, checking to make sure it was loaded. "Kikyou tried to kill me. Urasue is a bitch. Kill _now_, explain later."

The second the words were out of her mouth, Kagome felt fingers around her throat, and there was the sorceress, dragging her to the street—in broad freaking daylight! In front of a group of hunters!

"I will destroy you!" Urasue was howling, over and over again, digging her sharpened nails into Kagome's neck and face, using her own bodyweight to throw the girl to the ground.

Sango was the first to react, reaching for her own gun, but she suddenly found herself yanked backwards, her arm pulled behind her back in a chilly, tight grip.

"_No_," Kikyou told her coldly before shoving the brunette into Miroku; he caught her, his hands too busy trying to steady her to come to Kagome's aid.

A _crack _ripped through the air as Kagome successfully pulled the trigger—the slug slammed into Urasue's shoulder, only a flesh wound, but it forced the sorceress to fall back. There was a small flash of lavender light, and then the bullet started to sear the demonic flesh. Kagome got to her knees, trying to orient herself and the other members of the group. And in the confusion, there was Inuyasha, tackling Kikyou to the pavement, his claws to her throat. She lay there limply, not even trying to fight him off, but it was Kagome who latched onto the half-demon's arm to keep him from tearing into the dead woman.

"No!"

"No?" Inuyasha echoed incredulously, his heavy black eyebrows quirked in surprise—he'd been snarling, but now his upper lip was caught on a fang. If they weren't in the middle of a fight, Kagome would've been distracted by how cute he was when befuddled.

"Not her fault," Kagome wheezed, fighting for breath after the quick and dirty scuffle. She'd knocked his hat off, and his ears twitched in the cold air. One of the spectators (because of course a crowd had gathered) screamed, and then the person promptly fainted. "Urasue's fault."

"You wretch!"

Urasue was back on top of Kagome, tearing into the girl, one hand cutting into her abdomen. The scream tore itself out of Kagome's throat before she could stop it, and Inuyasha lurched forward at the sound of pain in her voice.

"Kagome!"

He'd left Kikyou where she was lying, instead focusing his attention on the sorceress. His claws swiped deep into her back, splattering blood across everyone nearby. Before he could snap her neck, someone else had her hands around Urasue's throat, the fingers bone-white and strong. Without a sound, without any indication that she cared about what she was doing, Kikyou gripped Urasue tighter and twisted—with a grunt, the sorceress slumped over, dead weight on top of Kagome.

Everything was still for a moment—no one in the crowd made a noise, and the town was eerily silent around them.

Coming to his senses first, Miroku made sure Sango had her balance before holding out his hand to hoist Inuyasha up.

"Come on," the hunter ordered, "We need to get out of here."

"Kagome needs help," Kikyou reminded them practically, brushing her hands idly against her jeans. It left blood smears on the fabric, but she didn't seem to notice. "Let's go to my office—quickly, before anyone recognizes me."

Dumbly, the others followed her suggestion. Inuyasha slipped his arms under Kagome's knees and shoulders, cradling her to his chest; she bit back a cry of pain, trying to ignore the way blood seeped through her sweater where Urasue had slashed her. Hearing sirens, Miroku slung the sorceress's dead body over his shoulder, while Sango unlocked the SUV and helped everyone in. The crowd parted quickly when the brunette made it clear she was going to drive that way whether they moved or not. The drive to Kikyou's clinic was reckless with Sango swerving around cars or up onto the sidewalk to buy time.

Ten minutes later, Kikyou tied off the final suture; it was one of ten stitched into Kagome's abdomen, just above her hip bone. She was lying on the examination table, her sweater off, while the men guarded the door. Sango hovered nearby, eyeing Kikyou with distrust. The dead woman had been acting very calm—in fact, none of them had yet to see her break down or get angry. She had dispatched Urasue with the same cold detachment that she used to stitch up Kagome.

"We'll have to bury the body," Miroku muttered, peering between the closed blinds. The SUV was parked in the alley behind the clinic, so he hoped any passing patrol cars would overlook them. The police had to be scouring Rochester for the group who had publically executed an old woman.

"I knew something wasn't right," Sango announced suddenly, turning fiery eyes on Kikyou. "I knew you had to be lying."

"What did Kikyou tell you guys anyway?" Kagome asked curiously, sitting up. She looked at her wadded up, bloody sweater in her lap. Wordlessly, her best friend shrugged out of her jacket and handed it to Kagome.

"After you guys left the hotel last night, Kikyou—"

"I told them you took off," Kikyou explained, her voice expressionless. She sounded neither apologetic nor proud of herself. "I told them that while we were talking, you confessed to me how much you hated this life. That you told me you disliked being on the road, that you missed your family, that you needed to go back home. I told them that you were unhappy, and that you just… left."

"We walked the town for awhile," Inuyasha suddenly said, stepping into the room. His shoulders were slumped, and his ears were pressed low to his head—it took Kagome only a moment to realize he felt guilty. "I could smell that you'd been there, but I could also tell you weren't here anymore. We discussed it, and then took off right away."

The half-demon broke off, and there were several beats of silence, an expectation hanging in the air for Inuyasha to continue. When he didn't, Miroku added, "You're one of us now, Kagome, we couldn't let you go."

Sango leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest, tossing angry looks at the men. "I didn't care what Inuyasha's nose told him—I knew Kikyou was lying."

"May I ask how?" the dead woman requested, getting to her feet and taking her tools to the sink to disinfect. "Personally, I thought I gave a believable performance."

"Kagome wouldn't have left without her phone or her wallet. How would she have gotten anywhere?" Sango explained, but then she paused, a smile sneaking onto her face and breaking through her anger. "Plus, she never would have left her camera equipment."

"Oh, my god!" Kagome got to her feet, wincing only a little as she put strain on her side. Inuyasha took a step toward her, but she held up her hand to let him know she was fine. "How's my camera? You guys took it with you, right?"

Chuckling, Miroku nodded. "Of course. It's fine, Kagome. Stop worrying."

It wasn't long before the atmosphere grew dark again, the hunters focusing their attention on Kikyou. She calmly put away her tools and dried her hands on a towel before turning to the group. She leaned her hip against the counter and folded her arms over her chest, moving her gray eyes from face to face. Really, Kagome thought, she didn't look dead. Even after the fight with Urasue, even with the blood smeared on her jeans and her skin so pale, Kikyou was beautiful. And all she wanted was a life, instead of this half-existence Urasue had forced on her. Kagome couldn't exactly overlook the attempt on her life, but she also couldn't bring herself to hate this…

Well, zombie.

"Have you decided?" Kikyou asked, her delicate eyebrows quirked upwards. She was looking to Kagome, as though she had been following the girl's silent train of thought. "What to do with me, I mean."

Everyone else, even Inuyasha, kept quiet, letting Kagome make the decision. In the end, she knew what she needed to do. "What do _you_ want?" she asked Kikyou softly, holding her hand out to the other woman as though to touch her shoulder. It hovered there for a few seconds before she thought better of it, lowering her arm back down to her side.

"I want to live," Kikyou decided, a self-depreciating smile forming. "Since that's impossible, the next best choice is to die."

"Okay," Kagome agreed. She took a step forward, again lifting her hand. She studied her fingers—they looked thin and weak. She knew that compared to either Inuyasha or Miroku, she had small hands. Even Sango's were more calloused and strong. But her hands held power, something she was just beginning to understand. "I want to try something."

Kikyou titled her head, a silent approval.

Coming closer, Kagome pressed two fingers to the dead woman's forehead and closed her eyes. She forgot that there were other people in the room, she even managed to forget the pain burning in her side. Instead, she thought about that purple light, the one that had been teasing her so much lately, the one that had tortured Urasue just half an hour earlier. _It's a purifying light_, Inuyasha had told her. _It purifies evil._

Maybe, Kagome hoped, it could purify the not-so-evil too, this not-quite-monster.

In the past, she'd used anger and fear to draw out this power that she didn't understand. Now, she thought about warmth, light, and all that was wonderful, things that made her soul feel bigger and brighter. The black backdrop formed by her closed eyes slowly faded into a deep purple before finally— a lavender light.

When Kagome opened her eyes again, Kikyou was gone, replaced only by a small pile of dust.

* * *

><p>"I feel like we're forgetting something," Miroku commented later that evening.<p>

The group had taken the SUV and left Rochester, only momentarily slowed down by a police roadblock. Two hours later, they found themselves on a two lane country road that followed the dips of a valley. Slowing down and pulling over, Inuyasha turned off the engine. The four climbed out of the car and leaned against the hood, watching the sun deep below the horizon.

"Oh, we are," Kagome murmured, her lips pursed unhappily.

Sensing danger, Inuyasha immediately said, "We were out looking for you! I swear."

"I knew that we wouldn't be able to find you without Kikyou—she was the last one to see you," Sango tacked on, her voice as sincere as she could make it.

Quickly, Kagome shook her head, fending off their explanations. "It's okay; that's not what I meant. Urasue opened a gate to hell, and I fell into it. How'd I get out?"

"You still don't remember?" Miroku prodded, frowning in thought. "You seem to be gaining control over your enhanced spiritual powers. Maybe you saved yourself without realizing it."

"That's just it, I don't think so," she told them, sounding more than a little troubled. "I think… I don't know how to explain it, but I think someone dragged me right back out through that gate while it was still open."

"Someone from hell?" Miroku clarified. When Kagome nodded, he continued, "You think someone from _hell _rescued you and then deposited you safely in Kikyou's apartment, knowing that you'd be able to sort things out from there." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking."

Inuyasha and Miroku shared a look, one of those wordless, hunter looks that drove the girls crazy. This time, however, they didn't need to hear what the men were thinking. It was worrying everyone, the idea that Naraku had officially escaped and had already been near Kagome when none of them were there to help her.

"Why didn't he kill me?" Kagome asked finally, voicing what was bothering each of them.

It was, not surprisingly, Inuyasha who offered the answer. "It would have been too easy."

Coming to a realization, Kagome snapped her fingers and ran around to the back door of the SUV. After a few minutes of shifting things around, she reappeared with her cell phone in hand. Powering it on for the first time since she'd disappeared the night before, the girl waited with baited breath as it loaded all her settings. Finally, with a cheerful _ding _that did not match the situation, a little envelope icon appeared in the corner of the screen. One new voice message. Setting it to loudspeaker, Kagome held her phone out in the middle of the group's circle.

At first, there was only static, but then a very familiar voice whispered, "_Kagome… I look forward to our next meeting. I have something I want to give to you—and something I very much want to take away_."

"Ah," Miroku mumbled, the first to speak. "At least he got you a gift."

Sango elbowed him hard in the side, but she was smiling, appreciating his attempt at lightening the situation. Really, there was nothing anyone could do until it was time to face Naraku again. "We'll get through this, Kagome."

"I know," she replied, offering up a smile for all of them. "Hey, guys, don't worry."

"Let's hit the road," Inuyasha said gruffly, gesturing at the SUV. "We should stop by Sesshoumaru's to report what's going on, and then we need to make sure we have enough supplies to handle whatever comes our way next."

"I'm driving!" Miroku announced, snatching the keys from Inuyasha's hand.

With a laugh, Sango took off for the passenger side door. "Shotgun!" she called out, claiming the front seat.

"I guess that leaves me and you," Inuyasha mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. They hadn't had a moment alone since…

"Hey," Kagome said suddenly, grabbing the half-demon by the wrist to stop him from getting into the car.

He held back, looking down at her curiously. She was so small compared to him, he thought, noticing that she barely came up to his chin. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's _wrong_," she answered, and the way her cheeks flushed the slightest pink—visible to him in the evening light only because of his enhanced eyesight—confused him. "I just—I need to check something."

Before she could second-guess herself, Kagome grabbed him by the collar roughly and pulled him towards her, pressing her lips to his. It had been impulsive, so the kiss was clumsy, chaste, and all-too-brief, Kagome separating them before the half-demon had a moment to process what she'd just done. Taking a step back, the girl settled a considering look on him. She was thinking way too hard about something, which flabbergasted the hunter since he was having trouble thinking at all.

"That was definitely our first kiss," Kagome said finally, her tone suggesting she'd confirmed some doubt.

"Of course it was—don't you think you would've remembered if we—if we did something like that before?" Inuyasha demanded. There he was, this big strong hunter all scruffy and serious and tough, standing in front of her with a blush on his cheeks and his ears drooping— bewildered to his core.

"Well, my memory's been a little funny lately," Kagome reminded him with a smile. "I vaguely recall something almost happening on Tuesday."

The half-demon's look darkened considerably, and he grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, _Damn Shippou_. "Well, if you wanted a kiss, you could've just asked. You shouldn't surprise a guy like that," he muttered finally, rubbing the back of his head with in an aw-shucks kind of way. He wondered how much time they had before Sango or Miroku got out of the car to check on what was taking them so long.

"Oh, in that case," Kagome began, grinning up at him. "I want a kiss. And make it a good one."

"Tsk, demanding woman."

And before _he _could second-guess himself, his hands were tangled in her hair, and their breath was mingling, and his lips were—

"Guys, what's going—oh, crap!" Miroku immediately slammed the driver side door after flinging himself back into the car, but the moment was ruined.

"Next time," Kagome promised, laughing. Quick as she could, she brushed her lips against his own and then sprinted off to the other side of the car, already thinking of retorts she could make to the jokes she knew were coming their way.


	9. Sidekick

All bad guys mentioned in this story are from canon, even if I didn't go into much detail about them. (If you can't figure out who's who, say so in a review, and I'll respond back with the demons' names and the episode titles.)

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Sidekick

* * *

><p>As much as Miroku wanted to deny it, he was the Alfred to Inuyasha's Batman. The only comfort the hunter got out of this idea was that at least he wasn't Robin.<p>

For once, the group didn't have a destination. Instead, Miroku had picked a random direction to drive in and hoped either Sesshoumaru would give them a call with an assignment or they would run across a hunt out of sheer luck. Since Kagome had joined them, that seemed to be happening a lot more often lately.

Speaking of…

Glancing in the rearview mirror, Miroku studied the two people in the backseat. His best friend was slumped over, snoring quietly, and with every passing second, the half-demon slid a little closer to where Kagome was curled up. The two had been awfully quiet since The Incident two days earlier. Honestly, Miroku felt they were making far too big of a deal out of it. So what—the two were attracted to one another. It was bound to happen. In fact, Miroku had been expecting it ever since that day six weeks ago when he and Inuyasha walked out of the forest by an insane asylum and found this petite woman waiting on the other side.

Now, of course Miroku had entertained the idea that _he _would be the one to end up with Kagome, but it just hadn't fit right. That very first hunt, taking care of Naraku (temporarily, as it turned out), Miroku and Kagome had worked well together as a team, as friends, but Inuyasha had been the one who'd rushed down there to rescue this pretty stranger. Maybe if Miroku had been the one who insisted on saving the girl while Inuyasha took the first shot at the ghost, things might have been different. Or maybe not.

The almost-couple's personalities might cause problems, though. Both were stubborn, loud, and headstrong. The hunter could just _feel _all the fights that lay ahead.

"What're you thinking about?" Sango asked from the front seat. She was very carefully painting her toenails, and every time the SUV hit a pothole, she'd flick disgruntled eyes on Miroku as if it was entirely his fault.

Instead of answering outright, he asked her, "Do you ever feel like a supporting character?"

"What?" Sango responded in a perplexed voice before pausing to blow on the wet polish. "Like, in the life and times of Kagome Higurashi?"

"Exactly."

Thoughtfully, Sango pursed her lips, giving this some serious consideration. "No," she decided finally, putting the brush back in the bottle and tightening the lid. "Other than my brother, Kagome's the most important person in my life right now, but we haven't exactly been joined at the hip. This is the first time we've spent this much time together since we met freshmen year of college, even counting the years we were roommates back in the city."

"And yet you followed her into this kind of life," Miroku pointed out, settling deeper into his seat. They were on a two lane highway, and he hadn't passed another car for over an hour.

"I didn't exactly have much waiting for me back home," the brunette muttered, propping both feet on the dashboard. For a few seconds, she considered leaning the seat back, but she was worried it would make the backseat too cramped for their sleeping friends. "Plus, there was no way in hell I was going to let my best friend go off alone with a couple of strangers to fight _monsters_."

Miroku made a thoughtful, non-committal grunt and allowed the conversation to fall back into an easy silence. Like Kagome, though, he had trouble keeping his mouth shut. "Do you regret it?"

"Not one bit," Sango replied immediately, but then there was a small pause before she continued. "Even though we don't get much recognition for it, at least we're out there saving people. It's kind of—my dad would've liked doing something like this."

"Your dad was a cop," Miroku clarified, hoping he remembered right. He looked over and found Sango staring out the window, her expression in the reflection distant.

"Yeah. Everyone in my family's always been a cop or a firefighter or something—except me. I couldn't get into the police academy."

This sudden confession made Miroku think more carefully about his reply. It may seem to others that all he saw when it came to women was a pair of legs to ogle and a chest to fondle, but the hunter had always prided himself on his ability to read people. It had been a handy skill back before he'd met Inuyasha, back when he and his guardian used to hustle people for food and money. Sango was a private person, and yet she was voluntarily sharing this with him. Even though there were two other people in the SUV, it felt intimate.

"What happened?" he prompted, finally, his voice soft in an attempt to not scare off the pretty brunette. In some ways, the two women were opposites. Kagome looked and acted like the weaker of the two—she was shorter, softer, friendlier—but she had shown a backbone that had even impressed Sesshoumaru. (Miroku could tell, even if the demon lord would never admit it. Like, _ever_.) Sango came off as the stronger of the two, but Miroku sensed that she was a lot more vulnerable and sensitive behind her walls. She'd lost everyone except her brother, and he could only imagine what else she'd been through.

"Oh, I passed the physical test of course," Sango explained, her voice tight but carefully dismissive. "It was the written exam that did me in. Kagome's good at tests, but me, I just—I can never explain anything right. I rely on actions more than words."

"What if—?"

"What about you?" Sango cut him off, turning in her seat to face him. He could tell it had started to get too personal, and now the woman was scrambling to back out of the conversation before there was a chance she could get hurt. Really, he couldn't blame her.

He could play this game.

"Like Kagome, I just kind of stumbled into the supernatural. My mother died in childbirth, and I lost my father in a car accident when I was eight. His will stipulated that his old drinking buddy got custody of me," he began, his voice taking on that tone that only the best storytellers had perfected. After all, Miroku _was _a storyteller; it was part of what made him such a good liar, how he'd scammed so many people over the years, how he'd survived more or less on his own.

This time, though, he planned on telling the truth.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Twelve years ago…<strong>_

"Hey, Mushin!" a boy shouted as he climbed a set of massive stone steps. He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead, pushing his shaggy hair out of his dark eyes. "Where do you want this?"

"Over here, kid," an older man yelled back. He was, Mushin decided, officially too old for physical labor. The monk sat down on a tree stump and took a swig out of the flask he always kept on him, pausing to belch into his hand. Behind his wrinkled features and a drooping gray mustache were red-rimmed eyes and a drunken—but kind-hearted—smile, one that he always had for his young ward. "Set that barrel down over here," he repeated, jabbing a finger at the ground next to his feet.

Fourteen-year-old Miroku stumbled under the weight of a cask of wine. With a fortifying breath, he lowered it to the ground. Brushing his hands on his jeans, he turned a wide grin on his guardian. "Are you ready for the mark tonight?"

"Of course I'm ready," Mushin said with a slight chuckle. "The real question is, are _you_?"

"Always," the boy answered promptly. "Picking these rich people's pockets is real easy. All you gotta do is keep 'em distracted for me."

With another chuckle, Mushin shook his head fondly. "People always let their guards down at a shrine. As though the spirits would protect your wallet! Listen, boy, did you finish your meditation?"

Miroku nodded enthusiastically, leaning against a nearby tree. His jeans were a few months old and therefore several inches too short—he was at an age where he was growing taller faster than Mushin could provide clothes, especially with measly government-funded paychecks.

"All _four hours_ of your meditation?"

"Yep, this morning," Miroku responded.

Mushin eyed him shrewdly and leaned in closer; the smell of scotch wafted under Miroku's nose, and the boy had to fight to keep from wrinkling his nose at the stench. "I taught you how to lie," Mushin reminded his ward, wagging a finger admonishingly. "I know when you're doing it."

A beat passed as Miroku tried to figure out if he was bluffing or not. "Fine, I only meditated for an hour," he admitted finally, turning his eyes to the ground.

The old monk shook his head sadly, laying a hand on Miroku's shoulder and giving it a squeeze. "You may not believe me now, but someday, you will learn how much you can gain by meditation."

To anyone else, the mixture of spiritual and criminal consultation might have been confusing, but Miroku had been hearing it for six years. After all, the money the two stole from rich shrine visitors and other hustles went to food and the upkeep of the shrine—there was no question that Mushin was also honestly concerned about Miroku's soul. It was all about survival, in both that life and the one thereafter.

"Hurry now, go get changed into your robes," Mushin ordered, pushing Miroku toward the main shrine house. The boy stumbled a few steps before finding his balance and darting away with an energy that Mushin wished he still had himself. "Don't forget to tie it tight!"

"Yeah! Okay!" Miroku shouted back before disappearing out of sight.

Alone, Mushin shifted his position on the tree stump, feeling his age. Around him, the breeze picked up and whistled through the trees, fluttering leaves overhead. The shrine was isolated, away from any major road and set back in the forest. Even as the rest of the country grew—erecting skyscrapers and building highways everywhere—Mushin's own little piece of the world stayed untouched. He enjoyed the peace and quiet, but it meant visitors were rare those days.

"We need this," Mushin mumbled to the trees, hiccupping twice and feeling his stomach rumble under his palm. It was a holiday—people always remembered their faith around the holidays. Miroku needed new jeans and a winter coat, while Mushin needed more scotch. He was running low.

The sun was dipping below the horizon, and its rays raced across the ground, creating a soothing amber glow. The monk could hear some laughter close by, the tinkling giggle of a privileged woman most likely clinging to the arm of her date for the evening. A twig snapped under the weight of a squirrel or a guest. Maybe something else.

Feeling someone's eyes on him, Mushin pushed to his feet, managing to sway only a little. His vision was blurred and oddly tilted. He no longer knew if it was his age or the alcohol.

"Not tonight," he told the trees, the invisible eyes, the shadow just out of sight. "We need this… Miroku needs this."

"I need what?"

Mushin spun around on his heel, startled to find the boy standing behind him. Really, Miroku was still too small for the robes engulfing him. The ties barely managed to hold back all the fabric. In the end, though, the oversized clothing just made the skinny teenager with the big, dark eyes and charming smile all the more endearing. It was no wonder people just ate his act right up.

"Nothing, nothing," Mushin murmured distractedly, patting his ward on the shoulder. The boy nearly crumpled under the weight. "I thought I heard guests. Are we ready?"

"When am I not?" Miroku countered with a wink. Then, with the awkwardness that only a fourteen-year-old has, he asked self-consciously, "How do I look?"

"Boy, you will grow up to be a heartbreaker. I can already tell."

Surprised into laughter, Miroku could feel his cheeks warm with a blush. "Who says I'm not already?" he countered, but his bluff was obvious. Other than shrine visitors, Miroku didn't have much time to rub elbows with girls his own age. "Okay; let's do this."

"Don't be so nervous," Mushin said and ruffled his ward's hair until Miroku shook his hand off. While the boy ran his fingers through his bangs to straighten them, the monk smothered another hiccup. "Now look alive—here they come!"

Miroku turned to the path with a wide smile, greeting the people appearing from between the trees. Around them, flames flickered on torches, bringing light and warmth to the suddenly dark and chilly shrine. In his element, Miroku started to perform, recalling myths and legends as a crowd gathered. Mushin would stand nearby, bowing and reciting prayers.

Occasionally, Miroku would pretend to trip over the long hem of his pants—as everyone around him laughed at his expense, the boy would sneak his hand stealthily into the pocket of the gentlemen he'd fallen against, pulling out coins or bills.

No one seemed to notice, and it got easier as the night went on. Guests helped themselves to glass after glass of wine, which Mushin happily served up while discreetly sipping from his own flask of scotch. The party dragged into the night, and people—all rich and hoping to save their souls just by visiting a shrine once a year—became merrier and freer. Before long, Miroku had so much stolen money stashed about his person that he jingled when he walked.

Hastily excusing himself, the boy retreated to one of the smaller sheds and hid the loot. Even though he'd been gone for only a few minutes, when he returned, Mushin had disappeared. Not that that hadn't happened before. As much as Miroku loved the old man, he wasn't blind to the fact that the monk drank every meal of the day. There were even times when he descended into deranged mutterings about the dangers lurking around every corner.

At only fourteen years old, Miroku believed that all the evils in the world were manmade—hunger, oppression, fear. Mushin had to be mistaking human folly as real demons.

"Hey, excuse me," Miroku asked one of the shrine visitors, tapping the man on the shoulder. "Have you seen the old monk?"

"Huh?" the man replied in a slurred voice, blinking down at the boy. "What monk? _The _monk?"

"Yeah, _the _monk," Miroku said, frustration tightly leashed in his voice. "Did you see where he went?"

The seconds dragged as the man forced himself to think about it. Miroku could practically see the gears turning behind his eyes. "Oh, right… He, uh, he went… that way," he answered finally, gesturing widely at the woods bordering the shrine. "He was with a real pretty woman."

"Thanks," the boy muttered, slipping past the man and the other stumbling guests, slipping out of the firelight and into the cool shade of the trees. Instantly, the sounds of the party were muffled. "Mushin!" Miroku shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. His voice cut through the forest, and a flock of sparrows nested in a tree took off into the sky, startling the boy. He stepped back, grazing his arm on the rough bark of a dead tree. Forcing his racing heart to calm down, he shouted again, "Mushin! Where are you, old man?"

Pausing, he listened to the night, closing his eyes to heighten his hearing. Now that the sparrows were gone, the woods were eerily quiet—not even a cricket chirping. The music and laughter from the shrine were soft and distant as if from another world. Finally, there, a small clicking noise nearby.

"Mushin?"

After pushing through the brush, Miroku found his guardian. The old monk was in the middle of a clearing, leaning into the chest of—just as the shrine visitor had told him—a very beautiful woman. Her long, black hair was draped over the head and shoulders of the monk, his face nestled into her shoulder, his hands gripping her upper arms. As intimate as the embrace looked, Miroku felt afraid for Mushin rather than embarrassed about stumbling across them.

"Mushin?" he whispered, his voice strangled and much softer than earlier.

"S-Stay back, Miroku."

Worried, the boy stepped into the clearing. "What's going on?"

"It's okay, I'm hungry enough for you both," the woman purred in Mushin's ear, running her hand along his jaw line.

"What?" Miroku fought against his fear and inched closer, eyes wide. "What are you talking about?"

"I promise to be quick, too; the boy won't suffer… much," she continued in Mushin's ear. Her tongue, impossibly long, snaked out and slid across the monk's cheek. When it retreated back into her mouth, she smiled wide and pressed her lips to his chin in a kiss. "You taste like scotch."

"Let him go," the boy demanded, horrified to find that his voice was shaking.

"Patience, boy," the woman hissed in his direction while hooking her hand in the air. Something glinted, and at first, Miroku thought she had a knife. It wasn't until she moved closer to Mushin, grazing his cheek and leaving a trail of blood in her wake, that he realized the sharpened glint came from her fingers, which were now long and sharp. Her very skin seemed to shift and stretch, her hand growing longer and more curved until it looked like a scythe.

Biting back a cry, Miroku demanded, "What _are_ you?"

Her mouth dropped open, and her jaw unhinged. Her lips pulled back, revealing a pair of mandibles, pointed and already bloody. Bending over Mushin's jugular, her hair fell forward like a curtain, hiding her actions. Still, Miroku could hear a wet crunch, and he winced. Why wasn't Mushin fighting this? Why didn't he pull away?

The boy dove at the ground, his hands scrambling over the dirt, searching for something—anything—to use as a weapon. His hands closed over a branch. It was wedged under an upturned root, and Miroku pulled at it desperately, trying to free it. The wood snapped off in his hands, breaking in half. The end was sharp and jagged.

With a cry, he lunged at the woman, raising the branch over his head. He brought it down on her, but it glanced off her shoulder like she was wearing armor under her dress. The woman threw out her arm, one of those curved pinchers catching Miroku in the face. He fell back, blood wet on his cheek and his back smarting with the impact.

"Wait your turn!" she shrieked. There was blood smeared over her face and dripping onto her clothes. Mushin's blood.

Screaming, Miroku found the branch and lurched at the woman again, bringing the sharpened end down into her chest, aiming for her heart. The momentum pushed it in a few inches where the flesh was soft.

The woman roared and dropped the monk, reaching instead for Miroku. She was transformed by her pain and rage, her eyes glowing red like hot coals.

"No!" Mushin shouted, his voice weak. He pulled at the woman, bringing her to the ground, and the branch hit the dirt. The force pushed it deeper into her chest, slamming it into her heart. With a gurgled death cry, she slumped over.

Struggling to his feet, Miroku stumbled over, dropping back down to his knees next to his guardian. Blood was pooling in the clearing below them, mixing with the dirt. "Are you okay?"

Mushin chuckled, holding a hand to the point where his neck and shoulder met. Blood oozed between his fingers. "I'm afraid not." He paused then, his breathing labored. "Praying mantis… demons can be very…" He stopped to chuckle again, blood beading at the corner of his lips. "Hypnotizing," he finished finally, smiling wryly at his own joke.

There were tears in Miroku's eyes, but he forced himself to laugh around them. "You're going to be okay," he told the monk stubbornly. "You have to be."

"You'll be fine," Mushin answered instead. "You're a smart boy, Miroku. Strong, too."

"I don't know if you noticed, but apparently there are demons out there," Miroku countered. God help him, his voice was bitter and darker than he ever remembering it being before—even when his father died, even when he had to go days without eating.

"You'll be fine," the monk repeated weakly.

"But… but I love you," Miroku whispered. "I need you."

Mushin's mouth opened, but no words came out this time. His eyes, still red-rimmed and so familiar, dimmed. Miroku broke down, clutching his guardian's body with all the strength he still had in him.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Nine years ago…<strong>_

Grinning, Miroku leaned against the counter, smiling charmingly at the pretty blonde behind the plexi-glass. "Can you tell me anything else about what you saw that night?"

She fiddled with the hem of her scrubs, a bashful smile on her face. Her cheeks were warm with a blush, and she kept flicking her eyes up at the handsome man on the other side of the pharmacy counter. Still, she tried to stay professional. "Are you sure you're a cop? You're just—you seem so _young_."

"Good genes," he explained, rubbing a hand along his stubble-covered jaw. The woman was, actually, right. Miroku was only seventeen years old, but he knew how he looked. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and he knew he could pass for someone in his early twenties when he wanted to. Three years of fighting (and killing) demons and monsters had lent him a noticeable confidence. "Now, you were saying…?"

"Right. Well," she hesitated, looking over her shoulder. It was late, and she was working alone, but she knew how her story sounded. "Like I said, it sounds impossible, but when I was locking up, I saw this—man, I guess, killing that guy you mentioned. But he was, like, eight feet tall and… furry."

"Furry as in really hairy, or furry as in _furry_?"

"Like he was covered in fur," she confirmed. "With big, tusk-like teeth and something on his head."

"_What_ on his head?"

She hedged again, blushing harder. This time, it was more because of embarrassment than how the very handsome, very charming Miroku made her feel. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think he had a giant horn coming out of his forehead."

"Ah," Miroku replied, again stroking his chin. To her relief, his expression was serious. "Thank you for your time." He started to walk away, but then stopped, turning back to the woman with a grin. "I have to take care of a few things, but when's your next day off?"

"Oh! Well, I, uhm, in two days," she stuttered, looking very pleased.

"See you in two days."

With one last grin, he left the small lobby and hit the street outside. It was dark and a little gloomy with fog, but there were still several people wandering around. The person who grabbed his attention was a tall man leaning against a lamppost nearby. He had a hat pulled low over his eyes, and his hands were stuffed in his jeans' pockets as casually as possible.

"What'd you learn?" the man asked, stepping into the light. Although they'd been working together for over eleven months, Inuyasha's golden eyes still managed to startle Miroku sometimes.

"Eight feet tall, tusks, and a giant horn. Oh, and real furry," Miroku recited, shrugging into his jacket. His breath came out in a cloud-like puff.

"Damn it, I thought so," Inuyasha muttered, turning his eyes away. Miroku could see by his profile that the half-demon was sniffing the air.

"What'd you smell at the crime scene?"

"Blood," the hunter said. "And _feline_."

"Feline?"

"Hyounekozoku no Oyakata," Inuyasha clarified. Honestly, though, it only confused Miroku more.

"That's a mouthful."

"It's the name of this big, bad cat demon. Sesshoumaru's been after it for years," Inuyasha explained sourly. "We can take it." The half-demon's worried expression, though, did not build any confidence in the human.

The pair took off down the street, walking shoulder to shoulder. A few women that they passed (it _was _a Friday night after all) stopped to stare, but Miroku knew when to reign in his dirty mind. Now was not the time. "We're going to need your brother for this one, aren't we?"

"…Yeah."

"But we're not going to get him, are we?"

"Not a chance in hell," Inuyasha grumbled, making a move to run his hand through his hair but remembering he was wearing a hat. Trying to dispel his nervous energy, he cracked his knuckles instead, his bright eyes searching the dark alleyways. "I'll come out of this just fine, but I'm a little worried about you."

Miroku did not appreciate his teasing. "Need I remind you of how I killed that vampire while you were knocked out when we first met?"

"It was the new moon," Inuyasha snapped. "A sixteen year old _human_ is worthless."

"I was sixteen," Miroku reminded his friend with a grin. "And if I remember right, I did just fine _saving your ass_. I also took it in stride when you turned into a demon at sunrise."

Inuyasha flicked him a disgruntled look that said clearly, _Bite me_. "I have to be honest. Your calm attitude is really strange and disturbing."

"I'm just a cool-headed person," the human countered haughtily. "Unlike some people."

"I haven't heard you complain when I'm saving the day—"

"Enough of this," Miroku cut him off, holding up his hand to fend off the other hunter's words. "We should really focus. We've got a demon to kill."

"A stupid cat demon," Inuyasha reminded him. Looking extremely angry about it, he fished his cell phone out of his pocket. "Maybe I should call Sesshoumaru."

"Hey, I'll finally get to meet this brother of yours!" Miroku realized excitedly, brightening up in a cheerful way that creeped Inuyasha out greatly.

"Half-brother," the half-demon correctly gruffly. "And, yeah, sure, whatever. You're totally going to meet him…"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Five years ago…<strong>_

"Come on, man!" Miroku said, slapping his partner on the shoulder in his enthusiasm. "You've gotta admit, that girl was pretty hot."

"The witness girl, Koharu?" At Miroku's nod, Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Dude, she was about sixteen years old… which makes you a creep."

Hesitation showed on the hunter's face as he looked back toward the apartments they had just left. The pretty brunette was standing in the doorway, still waving and smiling at the men. "Sixteen? You're sure?" Miroku asked, lifting his hand to wave back at her. Now that he thought about it, the petite woman did seem awfully young…

"She said she lived with her mother," Inuyasha reminded his friend with a smug smirk on his face.

"A lot of women live with their mothers!" Miroku protested. Even as he was saying it, though, he knew he was wrong. "Okay, fine, whatever. Let's forget about it. What do you think about what she told us?"

"That she saw a man's sketches come to life and kill all those people?"

"Yeah. Hey, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've ever seen," Miroku pointed out to the half-demon. "It's worth checking out."

Inuyasha stuffed his hands into his pockets and sneaked a look at his partner, his eyes suspicious. "Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes I feel like you're crazier about all this hunting stuff than I am… and I was born into it. Literally."

"I have my reasons," Miroku replied mysteriously, but his grin was stiff. The shadowed look on his face made it clear his mind was on something in his past, something that drove him to continue this life that he might have been able to leave if he really wanted to. As a half-demon with Sesshoumaru as a brother, Inuyasha didn't have that option. "I plan to hunt until the day I die," Miroku added.

"Well, if we keep going at this rate that might be sooner rather than later."

"So, what—you just want to let this one go? We've got lives to save," Miroku was surprised into snapping, running his hand through his hair. With his bangs pushed away from his face, Inuyasha thought his partner looked a lot younger and a lot more on edge.

"That's not what I meant," Inuyasha defended himself, his anger making him raise his hackles. "I'm just concerned about you."

"The only person you're ever concerned about is yourself," Miroku shot at the half-demon. "It's been almost five years since our first hunt together, and I've never—not once—seen you care about any of these people. Hell, sometimes I think if I ever got hurt, you'd leave me behind."

The half-demon stumbled back a step, his expression bewildered. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Angrily, Miroku opened his mouth to respond—but then cut himself off before he could even start. With a deep breath, he ran both hands through his hair, his eyes avoiding Inuyasha's. "I don't know. I have no idea where that came from," he admitted finally, honestly, trying to figure it out himself. "That was a really shitty thing of me to say."

"Yeah, it was," Inuyasha muttered, folding his arms across his chest and studying his partner closely. "Look, I think I know what this is. We've been stuck together for five years, and we weren't even friends until the past couple of years. It's a tough life. I think after this hunt, we should take a break."

"Take a break to do what?"

"I don't know—anything. Go to an island paradise, for all I care. I know I have my issues, but at least I don't keep all my anger bottled up. You're a lot less calm than everyone thinks," Inuyasha said, showing an insightful side that Miroku hadn't seen much of in their years of working together.

"So," Miroku said slowly, chewing this over. Around them, people pushed past on the busy city street, no one sparing a look at either of these men. "What you're trying to say is that there's more to me than meets the eye."

"I'm not saying you're a Transformer," Inuyasha replied, allowing a reluctant grin to creep onto his face at his own joke. The atmosphere was still charged, but there was a chance to fix it before it got worse. "I'm just saying that whether you admit it or not, there's a windstorm in you, and you need to find a way to keep it in check."

"Says the man with anger issues."

"I don't have anger issues," the half-demon responded dismissively, starting to walk away. "I'm just passionate about what I do."

"Yeah, tell that to the disgruntled zombie you ripped limb from limb last week," Miroku called after him. He didn't even mind all the weird looks civilians were sending his way.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Six weeks, two days ago…<strong>_

"Honey, I'm home!" Miroku called out, shouldering open the hotel door and dropping his duffel in a heap on the floor.

"Don't do that," Inuyasha grumbled, stretched out on one of the two beds, his eyes shut. "It's weird."

"Just a joke," the hunter reminded his best friend. "I can make jokes like that because I'm secure in my masculinity."

"You're secure in your masculinity because you sleep with a stupid amount of women," Inuyasha reminded him, still not bothering to open his eyes. Although technically Miroku took off for two weeks every year for a meditative retreat for his own mental health, the half-demon also used the time for some relaxation. "How was the shrine?"

"More rundown than ever," Miroku responded, shrugging out of his jacket and dumping it on a chair. He straightened his shirt, grumpy about the fact that it was wrinkled after the eleven hour drive. "Mushin must be rolling in his grave."

"He's probably rolling in his grave over the deadbeat you grew up to be."

"You're lucky you're my friend," Miroku stated primly, "Or else I would kill you for that comment."

"Just a joke," Inuyasha said in a singsong, mocking voice that was a poor imitation of Miroku.

"I don't appreciate it," the human muttered, collapsing onto the second bed. He leaned against the headboard and kicked off his shoes. It felt good to stretch his legs out after the long drive. "And for the record, I don't sleep with a 'stupid amount of women.' Each woman I _romance _and have a _relationship _with is a unique and beautiful flower."

"You're a whore."

Miroku struggled to rein in his temper and keep from feeding the fire that drove Inuyasha to be a complete and total jackass most of the time. "And you have commitment issues."

"One, I haven't met the right girl. Two, it would be irresponsible to start a relationship when all we do is travel all the time, and I could die any day. And three, it's none of your fucking business."

"There's way too much testosterone in this partnership. I think we need a girl to join us."

Inuyasha snorted. "That's never gonna happen."

"It would also keep us from getting in so many fights," Miroku suggested winningly.

"I doubt that," Inuyasha muttered. "We fight because sometimes you act like a real idiot."

"That's okay because you act like a real asshole."

"Smartass."

"Jackass."

"Be nice," Inuyasha said, lifting his hand to wag a lazy finger in the other hunter's direction. "Or else I won't tell you about the new case."

"You've got my attention," Miroku responded immediately, leaning forward eagerly. "What'd I miss?"

"There's this old insane asylum nearby. That's why I picked this hotel. Anyway, people keep going missing at night; mostly kids who dare each other to stay until sunrise. There's a ton of records missing, but my money's on the head doctor. The building's from the time when they did all that experimentation and torture to 'cure' people."

"What're you thinking? We stop by in the morning for a little investigation and then head to the library for research?"

"That's exactly what I had in mind," Inuyasha confirmed with a smirk. "I've got a good feeling about this hunt."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Today…<strong>_

"... And you know the rest," Miroku concluded, turning on the headlights. The beams cut through the night, illuminating a whole lot of nothing. Some scraggly trees lined the sides of the highway, which had long since deteriorated into a dirt road.

Sango was quiet for several minutes, her eyes on her reflection in the windshield. "How much of that was true?" she asked finally, not bothering to veil her suspicion.

"All of it, I assure you," the hunter responded cheerfully. "Even the bad parts, the ones that don't exactly show my good side."

"So, you worked with Inuyasha for five years without telling him about Mushin. You work with me for six weeks, and you tell me everything. I don't get it."

"You're a smart woman, Sango," Miroku said, chancing a glance at her. "Plus, I like you."

"Your own story suggests you like all women."

"True," he confirmed without the slightest hesitation. "I was an angry man, and I carried that anger with me for years, even though I didn't want to admit it. I killed the praying mantis demon, but I still wanted revenge for Mushin's death. If I'm being honest, I still do. Inuyasha saw that." There was a pause before Miroku allowed himself to smile in amusement. "He's smarter than people give him credit for."

"Including you," Sango guessed.

"For the first few years, yeah. You girls have said it yourselves—he's the brawn of our little operation, not the brains."

They flew by a small wooden sign advertising a rest stop, and Miroku flipped the turn signal. The side road was bumpy, and there were several times he expected the two in the backseat to wake up. They didn't. However, Inuyasha had slipped his arm around the petite girl, looking overly protective even in his sleep.

From the passenger seat, Sango craned her neck to peek back at the two. "They're cute," she commented, her voice low.

"You seemed pretty excited about them getting together when we were placing bets the past few weeks."

"I always second-guess myself when it comes to Kagome and what may or may not be good for her. While Kohaku's away at college, she's the only one I have to be a mother hen around."

"Protective," Miroku teased as he pulled up to a dark building. All the vegetation was dead, sticking out of the ground like broken skeletons. There were no other tire tracks, and it felt like there hadn't been visitors for months or even years. The headlights swept the wall, lighting up the front window. The hunter put the car in park, his eyes narrowed as he studied what he was certain was someone moving behind the curtains. "Need to use the restroom?"

"Not really," Sango muttered, her eyes scrutinizing their surroundings.

"Okay," he agreed, shoving open the driver-side door and getting to his feet. "Come with me anyway. And grab a gun."

"Spider senses tingling?"

"Something like that."

Sango met his eyes for one beat… two… Nodding firmly, she undid her seatbelt. Instead of getting out of the car, she reached over and popped the trunk first. In the back, she moved suitcases around until she uncovered Hiraikotsu.

"The boomerang?" Miroku asked, coming around the SUV to find out what she was doing. He had a pistol out, the safety off and pointed at the ground between his feet.

"I have an idea."

"Yeah, okay," he said, eyebrows quirked in curiosity. "I don't even know if there's anything here."

"There'll be something here," Sango told him confidently. "You said so."

Miroku paused, looking at her carefully. "Now, I'm only telling you this because of how much I like you," he began slowly. "This time is an exception, but in the future, I should warn you to not always believe what I say."

"Because you're a liar," Sango clarified.

"Storyteller," Miroku corrected quickly. "Now, stay ready and don't drop that heavy _thing _of yours. You might startle… it. Whatever 'it' is."

The two moved forward in tandem, Sango keeping one step behind him. They approached the front door, each moving to stand with their backs to the wall on either side. Miroku's grip tightened on his gun with one hand while he raised his other, counting down with his fingers. When he reached one, he pushed off from the wall and kicked the door open, charging in with the gun aimed in front of him.

Sango stepped into the building behind him, the muscles in her arm twitching with the sheer effort of lifting Hiraikotsu. Silently, she thanked whoever was listening that all those years of waitressing had built up her strength.

There was blood splattered everywhere, but it was old—a dark, rusty brown. The smell was—

"Oh, god, that's awful," Sango muttered, wincing back toward the door where the fresh air was.

"Breathe through your mouth," Miroku advised, stepping in further. The only light available were patches on the floor from the windows and the open door, but they could hear a scraping noise as something moved around nearby.

"I hear claws," she pointed out, sucking it up and coming to stand next to Miroku. As far as she could tell, there was a hallway stretching out in front of them. Several yards down, looming up by the ceiling, was a pair of glowing, red eyes. "That's not good, is it?"

Instead of answering, Miroku hefted the pistol and fired three consecutive shots in the direction of the eyes. They didn't even blink, and instead, the hunters found themselves falling back as a furious roar shook the building around them. There was a pause, and then Sango heard something that sounded like when Kohaku and Kagome's brother were having a spitting contest—the enormous sound of a beast hocking up a wad of a spit. There was another sucking sound and then, from the area that had to belong to giant mouth, four more pairs of (smaller) red eyes materialized. The new monsters fell to the floor, and there came the sound of claws scrambling across the floor; the creatures were racing towards them.

"What are they?" Sango demanded, wishing she'd brought her guns as Miroku unloaded shot after shot into the darkness. A low growling followed by howls and barking met her question.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess they're hellhounds," Miroku called out, pausing to reload his weapon. His movements were quick and efficient, but there was a lot less space between the hunters and the unseen monsters by the time he had the gun up and shooting again.

"And the big one that _spit them out_ is what, a giant hellhound?"

"Or a demon who can summon hellhounds. A corrupt wolf demon, maybe. Maybe it's another one of those werewolf demons. Do something!"

"I can't run into the hall to bash their skulls in without getting in front of your gun," Sango reminded him practically. "And I thought we decided on demon werewolf as the name." The brunette paused, her hand tightening on Hiraikotsu's handhold. If there was ever a time to test out her idea…

To brace herself, Sango planted her feet shoulder-width apart and raised the weapon over her head, her arms shaking with the effort. Twisting her body, she waited until she felt like she was in the perfect postion—and then she threw Hiraikotsu forward, putting all her strength behind it. It flew past Miroku, and Sango stumbled after it, understanding that she needed to practice the move before she tried again.

Hiraikotsu disappeared into the darkness, tearing through the four pairs of red eyes and slamming into the monstrous thing on the other end, the demon they still couldn't see. There was a wet, tearing sound, and then a pulsing thrum as the weapon spun back toward them.

Miroku, his eyes wide, threw himself against the wall, but Sango stepped forward and held out her hands, grabbing onto the handhold as it sailed past. The momentum pulled her with it, twisting her body almost painfully, but she spun around while Hiraikotsu's edge dragged in a small circle on the ground.

The red eyes had blinked out, and the smell of blood was a lot fresher.

A beat passed before Miroku turned to her, his eyes incredulous. "That was your big idea? _To throw it_?"

"It's a boomerang, isn't it?" Sango countered, panting heavily. "And it worked, didn't it?"

For a full minute, Miroku stayed pressed to the wall, his dark eyes trained on the woman in front of him. Finally, a slow, almost goofy grin spread across his face. When Sango recognized that look, she immediately started shaking her head forcibly.

"No," she told him sternly. "Stop that."

"Stop what?" Miroku replied, his voice dizzy.

"Looking at me like that. Like the way Inuyasha looks at Kagome… or at his shotgun."

Before the hunter had a chance to respond, the half-demon himself burst through the open doorway, his eyes heavy-lidded and sleepy but his claws held in front of him. "What'd I miss?" Inuyasha demanded, his voice groggy.

"Not much," Sango muttered, shouldering past both men and heading for the SUV. "We'll explain on the way. I hope you don't need to use the restroom because I definitely wouldn't recommend this place."


	10. Siblings

I will be the first one to admit that I had a lot of trouble finding a balance between humor and horror in this chapter. I have way too much fun writing bickering.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Siblings

* * *

><p>Inuyasha was relentless.<p>

"No," he objected for the fifth time, his hackles rising. The girls refused to back down even though he was clearly serious—looming over them, his arms crossed over his chest, his feet braced against the cement as if he expected a physical fight. "We're not splitting up."

"I don't—" Sango snarled, but Kagome cut her off by grabbing her shoulder and tugging the brunette away from the half-demon.

"We're not asking your permission, Inuyasha," Kagome explained, her voice far quieter and more level than Sango's. "We're _telling_ you that we're leaving."

"I really don't like this," Miroku muttered. He stood several feet away from the group, trying to stay out of the argument. With a sigh, he ran a hand through his shaggy hair. "But you two need to do what you think is best."

Feeling betrayed, Inuyasha turned on him. "What'd you just say? We can't let them go after—after—_whatever the hell it is_ all on their own!"

"You're worried," Kagome guessed, too exhausted to smile even though this thought made her feel a little flutter in her stomach. "Which is sweet, but you guys can't come with us. You've got some rampaging moth man thing killing people _here_. While you guys handle this situation, we'll go check on Kohaku."

"My brother wouldn't have called if it wasn't serious," Sango added quickly. Her hoarse voice quieted Inuyasha down, and he turned to study Sango with a frown.

"That's what worries me. What if it's too serious?"

There was a moment of silence. Sango's hand was wrapped around her cell phone, her fingers shaking. Less than twenty minutes earlier, she had gotten a panicked call from her younger brother, Kohaku. It had lasted less than thirty seconds, but the boy's fearful voice had been enough to send Sango over the edge.

Unfortunately, the gang was already hunting a monster. Sango couldn't ignore her brother's call for help, and Kagome couldn't let her best friend go anywhere without backup. That left only one solution—the group had to split up.

Naturally, the men, who still considered Sango and Kagome the weakest—and okay, sure, that was true since they had been hunting for only two months, knew far less, and Kagome still couldn't get a handle on her powers—became overprotective. Why couldn't it wait one or two more days until after the moth demon had been killed? Or why couldn't they split up differently, with either Miroku or Inuyasha joining Sango while the other stayed behind with Kagome?

"Kohaku may not be my brother, but he's still important to me," Kagome had protested when they tried that argument, more than a little defensive. "And Souta's his roommate at college. If Kohaku's in trouble, there's a chance my brother is, too."

It wasn't out of the question. Kagome couldn't get Souta or their mother, who lived nearby, on the phone. Mrs. Higurashi took care of Kohaku, which had been one of the only reasons Sango had felt okay with leaving her brother behind at college. First, when she moved into the city with Kagome, and then again when they joined Inuyasha and Miroku.

Now, the women turned on the hunters, the room almost suffocating with the brewing argument.

"If anything happens to Kohaku—"

"Sango," Kagome interrupted, grabbing her friend's hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "He's okay. And we'll make sure he stays okay."

The brunette dropped her eyes to the ground, hiding the emotions swirling inside of her from the group. Up until then, her anger, worry, and fear had been overpowering. "Get your stuff, Kagome, we're leaving."

Inuyasha opened his mouth—possibly to relent, possibly to protest again—but Miroku shook his head sharply at the half-demon. "We'll finish things up here, and then join you," Miroku told the girls, making the final decision himself. "Be careful."

"Yeah, you, too," Kagome responded, taking her duffel bag by the strap and hooking it over one shoulder. The women had bundled up and packed a few things all while arguing. After all, girls are good at multi-tasking. "We'll see you soon, right?"

There was only the slightest hesitation before Inuyasha nodded. "Right."

"Seriously, don't do anything stupid," Kagome joked weakly, her light-hearted tone forced.

"I think that's something _you _should worry about," Inuyasha retorted, poking her in the forehead with a smirk.

Kagome's eyes crossed as she focused on the claw, and with a timid smile, she reached up and grabbed his hand with both of her own. Pulling it down, she gently pressed his fingers open and—fighting to ignore the fact that Miroku was watching them with a goofy, almost proud look on his face—pressed her lips to his palm.

"You're blushing," Miroku accused Inuyasha with a gleeful chuckle. "I can't believe you're blushing!"

With an embarrassed laugh, Kagome followed Sango out the door, shutting the motel up behind her. It was time to head home.

* * *

><p>"Can't you go any faster?" Sango demanded, squirming in her seat. Her nose was pressed to the window, and her eyes scoured everything they passed. The place was empty and looked gloomy in the wee hours of the morning.<p>

The car they'd rented in the city where they left Inuyasha and Miroku wasn't exactly top-of-the-line. It had just entered the outskirts of the college town both girls called home. The university dominated the area. If a citizen wasn't a student, they worked at the school or in one of the local businesses that catered exclusively to college kids. There were a few suburbs and a small downtown-like area where the Higurashi shrine could be found. The shrine had been in the area for almost two centuries, far longer than the university itself.

"I'm already way over the speed limit," Kagome muttered, glancing at the speedometer. Still, she pressed harder on the gas pedal. "God, it's deserted."

"I noticed," Sango said, her eyes sweeping the neighborhood. Normally, there were groups of college students prowling the town at all hours. At least, that was how it had been when they'd been in school.

Sango and Kagome were freshmen together at the university. Kagome had grown up on the shrine with her mother, grandfather, and brother and was used to life in a college town, but Sango was a city girl through and through. They'd been roommates that first year in the dorms. They probably would have been roommates all throughout college, but the accident happened the summer after they first met.

Sango's father, a police lieutenant, was shot and killed while on duty. Since Sango and Kohaku had no other living relatives—their father's brother, a firefighter and a detective, had died in a burning building and a car chase respectively—Kohaku had been sent to live with his older sister. The siblings moved into an apartment off campus, and Sango received enough financial aid to both support Kohaku and continue her education.

During that first year after the accident, Mrs. Higurashi had been a godsend.

Kohaku and Souta were only two years apart, and the boys became best friends fast. All of them became a kind of extended, dysfunctional family. Even though Kohaku was a junior and Souta was a freshman, the boys shared a dorm on campus. The only rule was that they had to check in with Mrs. Higurashi for Sunday dinner every week. Up until the girls joined the hunters, Sango and Kagome would come in from the city at least once a month for a visit.

Because of the hunting, it had been over two months since the last time they visited, back when Kagome was still a nurse and Sango still waited tables.

"Should we go to the shrine first?" Sango asked uncertainly, feeling restless. Her guns were hidden in a holster under her jacket, but she could feel their weight against her sides.

Kagome shook her head immediately, biting her lip. "Let's go straight to the dorms. If this turns out to be a false alarm, I don't want to scare Mama—"

Suddenly, Kagome stomped on the brakes, tires squealing. Sango jerked against her seatbelt, and she knew there'd be a bruise within hours. "What was that for?" the brunette demanded, rubbing her collarbone with a wince. When she looked at the street, she saw exactly what had scared Kagome.

An oak tree the size of a semi-truck stretched across the road, crushing at least two cars. The massive branches stretched out to one side, hiding the remains of what used to be a house. On the other side of the trunk, they could see police lights flashing, but there weren't any sirens. Creepily, there were no people.

"What happened?" Kagome asked—rhetorically, of course, since Sango knew as much as she did. She put the car in park and undid her seatbelt.

They left the car running and climbed out, unsure whether it would be safer to go around the branches or through the roots. Finally, Sango took the lead; she found a way to climb over the roots. Once across, the girls stood gaping at the scene. There were abandoned cars as far as they could see down the street—many of which were flipped over. At least three more old trees looked like they had been torn right out of the ground by a giant hand.

"Oh, my god," Sango whispered, her eyes wide. "What could have done this?"

"A tornado, maybe," Kagome answered in an unsure tone, bracing herself against the tree. "Where is everybody?"

Sango didn't answer, too busy thinking about the phone call from her brother six hours earlier. There had been a lot of screaming in the background, and Kohaku—her shy, serious, quiet brother—had been shouting. Before the call had been cut off, Sango had heard something about 'wind' and 'people dying,' but it had been a jumbled mess. A loud roaring sound ripped through the speaker right before it was replaced by a dial tone. Could Kohaku have been calling about a tornado?

"Can you imagine?" Kagome asked quietly. "Being asleep when a tornado comes tearing through your roof…"

"Call Inuyasha. Give him an update," Sango suggested, already turning back toward the car, more anxious than ever to find her brother.

It took less than a minute for Kagome to realize she had no signal. "Whatever happened, it took out the reception tower," she explained, joining Sango in the car. "We're going to have to find another way to the university—unless you want to walk, that is."

"We can't," Sango reminded her. "We might need our weapons, and we can't exactly walk through the streets with a giant boomerang and a crossbow."

"I guess you're right," Kagome agreed. She looked around at the deserted street, the flashing lights of the empty police cars, the abandoned houses. "Something's not right here."

"Obviously, but we won't know anything for sure until we ask some people about what happened," Sango pointed out practically, squeezing her hands into fists in her lap. "Let's keep going."

Checking her mirrors, Kagome carefully turned the car around and retreated several blocks. It took over ten minutes before she found a side road that was a clear enough to drive down. Still, all the neighborhoods were empty and filled with debris, and she was starting to feel her stomach clench with nervousness. Where the hell had nine thousand people disappeared to?

The sun was above the horizon by the time the girls reached the campus, and Kagome drove carefully through a park around back. She turned off the headlights and eased the car around the last bend in the road.

The university looked deserted.

"Where is everyone?" Kagome asked again, still not believing her eyes. If it had been Souta who had called, whose panicked voice had urged her to come home and help him, Kagome was sure she would have been freaking out. As it stood, she had to keep it together for Sango's sake. "Let's head inside," she suggested, turning the car off.

"Take your gun," Sango reminded her while buttoning her coat over her holster. If she needed the pistols quickly, she would be in trouble, but walking around a college campus with a gun sounded like an incredibly stupid idea. "Remember where the car is," Sango muttered, glancing around at the empty lawn. "If we need our other things, we need to know where it is."

"Got it," Kagome said, tucking the gun into the back of her jeans like she'd seen Inuyasha do. (Of course, she checked to make sure the safety was on first.) Immediately, she shivered at the feel of cold metal on the bare skin of her lower back. How come Inuyasha never shivered? "Okay! So, the boys are in…"

"Delta Hall," Sango finished for her, pointing at a building in the distance. "Second floor."

"Right," she responded, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Let's do this."

Walking across their old school grounds was more than a little weird. Sango kept looking over her shoulder, expecting a monster or demon to leap out from behind one of the old oak trees, but no matter how far they walked, there still wasn't a single soul. She couldn't decide which was creepier—not knowing where everyone was or if there had been a mass grave waiting for them. Even though the town had been littered with upside-down cars and ripped-out trees, the university itself looked mostly untouched. That is, until they reached the student center at the heart of campus.

There was blood everywhere.

A car jutted through the front doors, still smoking. All of the windows were smashed open, and one corner of the building was nothing but a crumbled pile. There were no people.

"Still think it was a tornado?"

Kagome shook her head slowly, eyes wide with shock.

"Why is there blood but no bodies?" Sango asked, taking a step toward the wreckage. Before she could go far, Kagome reached out and snagged her by the elbow.

"We are not going over there! Sango—obviously a lot people died here, but I don't see any corpses. You know what that means. Zom—"

Sango cut her off immediately. "Kagome, we already dealt with a zombie. Kikyou, remember? And she was more or less harmless. You know, except for the sending you to hell thing, which was technically Urasue."

"Inuyasha and Miroku told us themselves that zombies get violent when threatened."

"So… _zombies _uprooted a bunch of trees and drove a car through the front of a building?"

Kagome hesitated before hanging her head in defeat. "Okay, fine. What's your theory?"

Before Sango could answer, they heard a shout in the distance. The voice was tiny, obviously far away and possibly high up. Kagome and Sango shared a curious look before scrutinizing the campus, trying to figure out where the person was yelling from.

"Someone's calling for help," Sango realized, straining her ears. "I think it's in the direction we were already going."

"Let's stop pretending like this is normal," Kagome mumbled, reaching for her gun. She flipped off the safety and positioned her hands just like she'd been taught. In the winter air, against the cool metal, her fingers were freezing. "We might as well accept this is another stupid monster thing."

With a weak chuckle, Sango retrieved one of her own pistols. "Can't catch a break, can we?"

"If Inuyasha were here, he'd throw some insult our way about how it's our own fault for being here."

"Ah, well, it's true, isn't it?" Sango answered grimly, taking the lead once again and starting down the sidewalk. "Clearly we haven't learned our lesson yet."

"Good thing we're at a college then, huh?"

The shouting was getting louder as they moved toward the outskirts of campus. Soon, there was another sound that Sango couldn't quite pinpoint: a rhythmic thumping, like a giant speaker pounding with music. Rounding a corner, Sango realized they'd reached the dormitories.

"Oh, my…"

"Crap," Sango said, finishing Kagome's hushed exclamation. She narrowed her eyes, her grip tightening on her gun. "I guess we found everybody."

At the base of the closest building, hundreds of people—at least, _things_ that used to be people—were charging head-first into the brick. Corpses (as in bloody bodies of dead students), some missing limbs while others were just sliced up like they'd been through a cheese grater, were throwing themselves at the wall as if they were trying to break it down. Waiting in the wings were more, maybe a thousand of them, standing in a silent crowd. The assault was happening in waves, which explained the rhythmic thumping Sango had noticed. A line of twenty or so corpses would line up before charging all together at the wall. Huge gusts of wind pushed at their backs, almost as if guiding them into the wall.

"I told you it was zombies," Kagome whispered, taking in the sight with wide eyes. "Why are they trying to get into—?"

"Up here!" someone shouted, grabbing their attention. It had to be the same person as earlier.

Kagome and Sango both looked up, noticing that the windows of the top two floors of the dormitory had faces pressed against them. Living, breathing faces of living, breathing students who had managed to barricade themselves in the building. Hanging out of one of the windows was—

"Kohaku!" Sango screamed, waving her arms over her head.

"Sis!" the boy shouted back, grinning from ear to ear. "I knew you'd come."

"What's going on?" Sango yelled, pointing at the crowd of dead bodies to make sure he knew what she was referring to. (Personally, Kagome thought it was a little redundant; what else could she have meant?) So far, it was like the corpses hadn't noticed the girls; they kept up their kamikaze-like assault on the building.

"This crazy wind storm hit the town yesterday, tearing up trees and knocking down houses. Then a woman showed up on campus, and it was like she was the one _controlling _the wind. She killed a ton of people," Kohaku explained loudly, leaning as far out of the building as he could. Some students standing behind him gripped his clothes, making sure he didn't tumble out the window in his enthusiasm.

"A woman?" Kagome repeated, waving a little to get his attention. "What woman?"

"I don't know—real pretty with red eyes. It was like she could _throw _wind at people; it was cutting them up. We escaped into Delta Hall and locked ourselves in. There's maybe two hundred of us in here… She tried to knock it down, but I guess Delta's too strong for her."

"So… zombies?" Sango shouted, indicating the corpses again.

"Dunno," Kohaku answered honestly, shrugging. Even from that far away, it was obvious to the girls that he was exhausted. He must have been awake all night shouting for help. "The woman sent 'em here."

"Where are Mama and Souta?"

"Right here, Kagome! Well, I am, anyway," Souta answered, shoving his way past the other students and popping his head out from around Kohaku. "You know, considering what's going on, you guys don't look very freaked out—and are those _guns_?"

Kagome turned to Sango with a roll of her eyes. "Zombies are trying to eat him and all his classmates, and he's worried that I have a gun."

"I still don't think they're zombies," Sango muttered, studying the crowd of corpses nearby. "Plus, look, some of those bodies don't even have heads, and they're still running around. Somebody's controlling them."

"The woman Kohaku mentioned. Okay, so we have to take them out a different way," Kagome concluded thoughtfully, eyeing her gun and deciding it was probably useless. "How about we set them on fire?"

"That or chop them up, maybe."

"I am very concerned," Kohaku interrupted from his vantage point four floors up, "by the fact that you two are so calm. Kagome, you once fainted because a spider fell on your head."

"That was ages ago!"

"It was three months ago," Souta corrected his sister, frowning down at them. "Our easy-going attitude can be explained by the fact that we've been under siege by dead bodies for almost seven hours, and we're probably in a state of shock. What the heck is up with you two?"

"Don't be a smartass, Souta," Kagome snapped. "We're, uhm, we're totally freaking out over this, too. But we're staying strong because… because we have to save our little brothers!"

"Liars," Souta accused, sticking his tongue out at them. "I'm telling Mom!"

"Okay, you got us," Sango countered. "We're monster hunters. This is completely normal for us now."

Both boys deteriorated into laughter, their exhaustion and shock having made them semi-delirious. Souta was right—after watching hundreds if not thousands of fellow students be slaughtered by a red-eyed woman, after being locked in a building with dead bodies throwing themselves at a brick wall for seven hours, after seeing your _sister _come to the rescue carrying a gun…

"They've snapped," Kagome decided in a hushed voice. Then, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Hey, Souta! Where's Mama?"

There was a beat of charged silence before Souta broke eye contact. "I don't know. Cell towers and power lines are down because of the—the storm or whatever. I can't get a hold of her."

"Me neither," Kagome told him, her concern softening the bluntness of this statement. Souta's stiff upper lip (a sure sign he was fighting to maintain his cool) started to tremble, so Kagome forged ahead before her little brother had any time to break down. "Okay, here's the plan: obviously, these _things_ want something that's inside Delta Hall, so you guys stay in there. Sango and I will find a way to get rid of them while they're distracted."

"Hiraikotsu?" Sango asked, thoroughly confusing everyone else listening in on the conversation.

Kagome nodded firmly. "And something to start a fire. I'm thinking gasoline and…"

"How about a Molotov cocktail?" Kohaku suggested, once again interrupting the girls. His jaw was set, and Kagome realized just how much alike he and Sango were. Give either one of them a challenge, and they met it head-on. In fact, the more Kagome thought about it, the surer she was that Kohaku was the one who had herded his fellow students into the dormitory and locked the building up to keep them all safe. Not that she doubted Souta, but it just seemed like something Sango would have done, and therefore, something of which Kohaku was capable.

"Good idea!" Kagome agreed with a grin. "Do you guys have supplies in there?"

"What do we need?" Souta asked, jostling Kohaku for a better position at the window. Framed way up there, Kagome and Sango were struck with just how exceptional their little brothers were—tired, scared, and still so eager to help out.

"Matches or a lighter and some bottles of flammable liquid, like alcohol," Kohaku explained knowledgably, patting down his pockets as if expecting to find all these supplies on him.

"Think you guys can find a lighter and some alcohol?" Sango called up to them.

Kohaku and Souta shared a look before glancing behind themselves at the other students. "Uhm, no offense, Sango, but this is a _college dorm_. Of course there's alcohol and fire in here," Souta retorted.

"Smartass," Kagome repeated, this time affectionately. "You guys get going on that, and we'll be right back."

With some waves and calls of farewell-slash-encouragement, Kagome and Sango took off back across campus. They needed to get to the car and fast since that was where they'd left Hiraikotsu. In hind sight, it would have been fine if they had carried the boomerang with them when they first started exploring, but they hadn't known that back when they first arrived.

"The boys are handling this pretty well," Sango commented, only slightly out of breath as they jogged past the destroyed student center.

"Yeah, and I took it well when I first met Inuyasha and Miroku and set Naraku's dusty corpse on fire," Kagome reminded her, trailing behind by several feet, huffing and puffing as she tried to keep up. It wasn't that she was in worse shape than Sango (okay, maybe she was), but she was several inches shorter—thus, her stride wasn't as long. "It's the adrenaline. As soon as we resolve the situation, they'll probably cry like babies."

"Not Kohaku," Sango argued, smiling a little as she thought about her brother. "He's way too tough for that."

"Just like big sis," Kagome teased, grabbing the stitch in her side as they pulled up alongside the car. She tried to catch her breath as Sango unlocked the rental and retrieved Hiraikotsu from the backseat.

With a grunt like a tennis player delivering a serve, Sango hefted the giant boomerang over her shoulder and braced it against her back, showing only a little strain. "We're definitely not running back," she muttered and adjusted her grip so that her arm wouldn't shake with the weight. "When this is over, I'm definitely going to hit the gym."

"What if we just drive across campus?" Kagome suggested as Sango started back in the direction they had just come from.

The brunette paused, thought it over, and then shrugged. "Careful there, Kagome," Sango teased her best friend, fishing the car keys back out of her pocket. "People are going to start thinking _you're _the brains of this team instead of me."

"Well, I'm certainly not the brawn," Kagome joked right back, helping Sango shove the boomerang into the backseat.

They piled back in and turned the nose of the car in the direction of the dorms. It took time to navigate the walkways—meant for a crowd of students, not a car—and the student center disaster was a pain to get around, but they made it back to Kohaku and Souta quicker than they would have if they had walked. Stepping out of the car, Kagome noticed that there were even more corpses gathered at the base of the building than before.

"People from downtown and the suburbs," Sango said when she realized what Kagome was staring at. "There's that old man that runs the convenience store off campus, see?"

"Yeah." Kagome nodded grimly, her eyes sweeping over the assembled faces. There were several people she vaguely recognized—people who had visited the shrine periodically when she was little, local business owners, even an old professor. Everyone was obviously long dead with ashy skin and crusted, dark blood. Although no two people had the same injury in the same place, they all looked sliced up. "I don't see Mama."

"That's good," Sango pointed out supportively, squeezing Kagome's shoulder. "Are you going to be able to do this? Get rid of these things, I mean."

Without hesitation, Kagome nodded firmly. "I'll be fine. It's not like they're alive or anything anymore."

"Alright. Ready to see my new trick?" Sango asked, bracing herself against the sidewalk. Without waiting for Kagome to reply, she adjusted her grip on Hiraikotsu. Swinging it as far back as she could, Sango quickly untwisted her body, hurling the boomerang at the crowd. It tore through the air, flying right through the corpses. Like a hot knife through butter, Hiraikotsu carved through the crowd, clearing a path before curling around at the far end. On its way back, it took out another column of the dead, splattering remains against the buildings, the sidewalk, and the other bodies.

Holding her hands out, Sango caught the boomerang and allowed the momentum to drag her backwards. She forced her body into a spin, bringing Hiraikotsu right back around to where it started, barely stumbling at all.

Immediately following this display, Kagome applauded, jumping up and down with excitement. There was a cheer from the students watching from Delta Hall, as well. "That was great! Oh, my god! No wonder Miroku's been all moony-eyed over you since he saw you do that—Sango, that was _badass_."

"I'm always badass," Sango countered smugly, flicking her bangs out of her eyes. "Now I'm just badass with a giant boomerang."

"No way!" Souta shouted, elbowing past some of the other spectators until he was once again at the forefront of the crowd at the windows. "That was awesome!"

"Sango, you're going to teach me that, right?" Kohaku asked, grinning down at them. His entire face was lit up with pride. "Do it again!"

And so she did. One, two, three times more, mowing down dozens of reanimated corpses with each throw. Every time she took out some of the ones assaulting the building, untouched ones in the waiting crowd would replace them. By the time she'd cut their numbers down by half, Sango was panting heavily, perspiring under her many layers of winter clothing.

"This is harder than it looks," she confided in a low voice, not wanting Kohaku to hear her admit any weakness. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

Wanting to know how many were left, Kagome's eyes swept over the crowd several times. There had to be another five hundred, and more were trickling out of the park with every passing minute. "Rest for a minute," she told Sango before turning to the building. "Hey, guys! You got those Molotovs?"

"Ready and waiting," Souta confirmed with a gleeful grin that concerned Kagome. (Really, she was forgetting how excited she had been two months earlier when Miroku had sent her into an attic with a flask of gasoline and some matches, wasn't she?) To prove his point, he held out a bottle of what looked suspiciously like whiskey and wiggled it around; a strip of fabric was jutting out of the top. "Want us to light one and throw it down into the crowd?"

Kagome nodded before assessing the corpses again. "Down there! Back where they're in that thick group by the corner of the building. Figure out who has the best arm and give it a good throw!"

After some hushed conferring between the boys and some of their classmates, Kohaku took the Molotov from Souta. He disappeared from view but reappeared less than a minute later at a window further away.

"Don't rush it!" Sango coached, still panting from her earlier exertions. "And don't forget to follow through with the toss!"

"Just like dad taught us, right?" Kohaku shouted back, his voice much softer now that he was farther away. Kagome hoped he was talking about tossing baseballs with his father, not Molotovs.

"Right," Sango confirmed with a nod, grinning at her brother.

A hush fell over the (living) crowd as Kohaku took aim. Finally, he lit the fabric with a lighter and, with a shout, threw it into the mass of bodies below. The bottle shattered on impact, throwing flames everywhere. A fire quickly engulfed two dozen or more corpses. They didn't even react, just stood there and allowed themselves to burn to the ground.

Everyone cheered again, even Kagome, but Sango stayed serious.

"They're not fighting back," she commented, her expression troubled. "We've been lucky, but what if that woman shows up?"

"Then we'll deal with her then," Kagome replied, unconcerned.

"Or you'll deal with me now."

Kagome closed her eyes, horrified and already guessing at what she would find when she turned around. With a deep breath, she forced herself to do it, coming face to face (or rather, face to neck since the woman was several inches taller) with a red-eyed demoness. "Crap," Kagome muttered, sensing that Sango, who was behind her, had started to retreat.

Looking almost… _amused,_ the demon smirked at Kagome and shook her head slowly, dismissively. "I knew all I'd have to do was wait, but he just had to be impatient and make me waste my talents on this crowd of weaklings."

"Huh?" Kagome mumbled intelligently, stumbling back a step to put some distance between her and this new threat. She realized vaguely and in the back of her mind that the rhythmic thumping of corpses throwing themselves against the brick of Delta Hall had stopped. The master had returned. Her dead neighbors had turned into a massive audience to the brewing fight.

"Nothing, never mind," the woman remarked, flicking her eyes to something over Kagome's shoulder. With a grin, she wagged a finger—tipped with a long, pointed, red nail—and tsk'ed at Sango. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Kagome quickly looked behind her, noticing that Sango had frozen, her hand half under her jacket reaching for a gun. "You can't blame a girl for trying," the brunette joked stiffly, grinning at the demoness.

Scoffing, the woman waved her hand, snapping open a fan that the girls hadn't noticed before. Actually laughing, she waved it in Sango's direction.

The conjured wind barely brushed past Kagome but still managed to throw her backwards. Meanwhile, the real target, Sango, was tossed into the brick wall. Her head smacked against the surface and, groaning, she collapsed on the sidewalk. Hiraikotsu spun away from her, landing at the feet of the now-unmoving crowd of corpses.

"Ouch!" Kagome snapped angrily, rubbing her bruised tailbone. She could hear Sango's moan, which at least meant the brunette was still alive. "What is _wrong _with you?"

"Sango!" Kohaku screamed, reappearing at the window above the fight. He was leaning so far out that Souta had to grab him to make sure they didn't both fall out of the building. "Sango, are you okay?"

"You!" the demoness roared, pointing at the window, the dirtiest look possible on her face. Her nose actually wrinkled as if she'd smelled something rotten. "Human boy!"

"Me?" Kohaku and Souta replied simultaneously.

"My name is Kagura, and I have come to kill you," she announced, snapping her fan open and shut in irritation.

"Wait, which one of us?" Souta asked, his eyebrows quirked in confusion.

"You!"

"…Me?" he answered again, pointing at himself.

With an exasperated sigh, Kagura pursed her lips. "Yes, _you_."

Souta grinned weakly. "Oh. Sweet?"

"Now is really not the time to be a smartass," Kagome suggested, struggling to her feet while shooting her little brother a dirty look. "So… you trashed a town, killed hundreds—"

"Thousands," Kagura interrupted with a smirk (and an expression that Kagome couldn't quite pin down).

"_Thousands _of people, and then sent their corpses to attack a dorm because you wanted to kill Souta," Kagome clarified, crossing her arms over her chest and looking more than a little angry. "Why?"

"Because you're his big sister," Kagura explained, folding her own arms stubbornly against her chest, mirroring Kagome's stance. "Obviously."

"No, not obviously," Kagome countered in bewilderment. "Why are you trying to kill my little brother?"

Kagura blinked and tilted her head to the side, furrowing her brow as though she thought the answer was clear. "Naraku told me to."

As expected, the name caused Kagome to swallow—_hard_—to force her fear back down. "Do you do everything Naraku tells you to do?"

"I do now," the demoness muttered, not sounding exactly pleased with the situation. "He brought me with him from hell when he freed himself."

"So…" Kagome pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You're his… minion?"

"I am no one's minion," Kagura snapped immediately, jabbing her fan in Kagome's direction. The small gust of wind that materialized was strong enough to shove Kagome several feet.

Struggling to keep upright, Kagome glanced at the dorm, remembering how many lives were hanging in the balance. "Look, I'm not exactly in a position to say we can forgive and forget all this, but what do you say we both just walk away? Or do we really have to fight?"

"I'm not scared of either of you," Kagura pointed out snappishly, tossing her head. "You're just two human women who've gotten lucky a few times with a few weak demons."

"We haven't lost yet," Sango growled, hoisting herself to her feet. A small trickle of blood trailed from the corner of her mouth, and she brushed it away impatiently. "Kagome here took down Naraku all by herself."

Kagura considered this, walking around them in a predatory circle. The girls noticed that even if she hadn't been barefoot and wearing a blood-red kimono, she never would have passed for human in a crowd. Her eyes alone screamed, 'Demonic!', and her ears were pointed like Sesshoumaru's. "She killed Naraku when he was nothing more than an angry spirit. Now, he's some demonic spawn hybrid that tore itself out of hell and is really angry. It's a little different."

"I'm surrounded by smartasses," Kagome grumbled. Louder, she said, "I really don't want to fight you."

"Are you sure about that? I just destroyed your hometown and tried to murder your little brother."

Weighing her options, Kagome glanced up at the dorm windows again. Souta smiled weakly down at her. Even though he had to be confused, even though he had to be wondering who Naraku was and what this woman was, he still managed to _smile_.

"Hey," he said jokingly, "I'm willing to let this go if you are."

Thankful, Kagome grinned back up at him. "You're _such _a little trooper."

"Smartass," he called down affectionately.

"Oh, god, this is disgustingly chipper," Kagura interrupted, rolling her eyes skyward. "Have you decided yet? Are you going to fight back, or do I get to kill you the easy way?"

If it was a perfect world, it would be right at this moment when Inuyasha and Miroku would appear, coming to their rescue. Kagome even allowed herself to imagine it, the half-demon bursting out of nowhere, falling from the sky with his rusty old sword swinging at Kagura's neck. And Miroku, cool as could be, stepping from around a corner and shooting at the demoness with the steadiest hand anyone had ever seen.

But that wasn't what happened.

Instead, Kohaku screamed, "Look out!" and gave the girls just enough time to jump backwards as he hurled a Molotov down at the demon's head.

Screaming in rage, Kagura flipped open her fan and threw a blade of wind at the sky, slicing through the bottle. Midair, the flaming alcohol shot across the sky, raining down on the pavement.

"Oh, god, oh, god," Kagome shouted, pulling her hood up over her hair as she ran for cover. Sango lurched in the opposite direction, ducking under a tree that quickly went up in flames. Cursing, Sango rolled back out from underneath, running for Hiraikotsu instead.

"Sorry!" Kokahu shouted sheepishly.

"Dude, when we go monster hunting, you're so not my back-up," Souta snapped.

"No monster hunting!" Kagome scolded, planting her fists on her hips.

Kagura, her eyes murderous, shook her head incredulously. "How have you not died yet?" she demanded angrily, pointing at Kagome and then Sango. "You two are entirely untrained, easily distracted, and undeniably _human_. This is ridiculous."

"No need to be so rude," Kagome growled, turning her flashing eyes from her brother to the demoness. "If I had my crossbow, you'd be dead by now."

"I sincerely doubt that," Kagura retorted, reaching up and fishing something out of her elaborate hairdo. When her hand reappeared, the girls were dumbfounded to see she was holding a feather between her thumb and forefinger. Tossing it into the air, the feather expanded until it was the size of a canoe and floated gently to the ground. The demoness mounted it and then settled into a relaxed, cross-legged position. "Killing you two now would be far too easy," she announced darkly. "I'll just have to do it later when you can present me with a real challenge."

She rose into the air, the feather rocking on the breeze. As Kagura soared higher into the sky, row after row of the corpses—who Kagome and Sango had forgotten about—fell to the ground, no longer held aloft by whatever magic she had been using.

"She's flying on a giant feather," Sango muttered, limping over to Kagome by using Hiraikotsu as a makeshift crutch. "I think that might be the weirdest thing we've seen so far."

"I agree," Kagome mumbled, slumping into Sango's shoulder so that the girls were supporting each other. "What now?"

"Damage control," the brunette said, watching as the students—those who were not still gaping at the quickly departing demoness—moved away from the windows. They would be exiting the building soon. "We don't know how many people are dead and how many were just hiding. There are all these bodies to bury and buildings to rebuild and…"

"Giant trees to drag off the streets? Students to convince they aren't crazy?" Kagome added, watching as everyone filed out of Delta Hall, led by Kohaku and Souta. "Uncomfortable stories to explain to little brothers?"

"Yeah. That, too."

* * *

><p>It wasn't until evening that Inuyasha and Miroku showed up on Mrs. Higurashi's doorstep.<p>

After they rang the doorbell, Kagome's mother opened the door to find two very tired, very concerned young men waiting for her. Their clothes were dusty and torn, Miroku had a cut on one cheek, and Inuyasha's hat was barely hanging on to the point where Mrs. Higurashi could see one of his adorable little ears.

"Kagome!" she called back into the house. "You've got company!"

And then when Kagome walked up behind her mother, Inuyasha surprised everyone by yanking her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and waist as tightly as he could and holding her until he could feel her heartbeat through his jacket.

"Thank god," the half-demon whispered into her hair.

"Hi, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her voice muffled since her face was pressed into his chest. "Hi, Miroku," she added, even though she couldn't see the other hunter.

"Good evening, Mrs. Higurashi," Miroku greeted politely, stepping into the house beside the still-embracing Inuyasha and Kagome. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh! You, too, dear," the mother fluttered, ushering him further inside and shutting the door. "Sango and the boys are in the living room."

"Boys?" Inuyasha echoed, apparently remembering himself. He then shoved Kagome away from him so quickly that she stumbled, trying to find her balance. Quickly, Inuyasha reached out and grabbed her by the elbow, steadying her with a guilty wince.

"Souta and Kohaku," Kagome clarified, straightening her shirt in embarrassment. Her cheeks were bright pink from the unexpected display of affection, and she tried to ignore her mother (and Miroku's) giggling. "Our brothers."

"The moth demon has been dispatched," Miroku reported with a mock salute as the group followed Mrs. Higurashi into the living room. "And it was clear to Inuyasha and I as soon as we arrived that this sleepy little town had its own dangers to deal with."

"Kagura the demoness," Sango piped up. She was curled up in an armchair, a cup of hot chocolate nestled in her lap. Souta and Kohaku were collapsed on the couch, both looking wide awake—if not a little deranged after their first supernatural experience.

"I could smell her," Inuyasha snarled, his eyes flicking toward the doorway as if he expected Kagura to walk through it at any second. "How many people did she manage to kill?"

Sango and Kagome glanced at one another, frowning. "By our estimation," Sango began before trailing off, flicking her eyes downward with a frown.

"Out of nine thousand residents, I'd say at least six thousand are gone," Kagome finished unhappily. "Most of those were students."

"Sesshoumaru's cleaning crew showed up right after Kagura left," Sango explained. "They're helping us with damage control. I'm sure you saw the roadblocks—they said they had to quarantine the town until everything was cleaned up and everyone who witnessed anything was taken care of." The brunette hesitated, but she knew she had to ask. Turning to Miroku, she questioned him quietly, "What did they mean, 'taken care of'?"

"They'll either convince the witnesses that what they saw was not actually what they saw, or they will convince the witnesses to keep their mouths shut," Miroku explained with a half-smile. "Sesshoumaru has enough money and power to make that happen, even to a town with three thousand survivors."

Something finally took root in Inuyasha's mind, and he turned a dark look on Sango. "You said that Kagura _left_. You didn't kill her?"

"We tried," Kohaku piped up, drawing the hunters' attention. Between Miroku's dark, steady gaze and Inuyasha's gold eyes, the shy boy had to fight to keep talking. "Sort of, anyway. Kagura took off before there could be a real fight. She said it wasn't enough of a challenge."

"What I don't get is how Kagura was _here_," Miroku murmured thoughtfully, taking a seat on the couch between the two boys. They scrambled to get out of his way, but he didn't seem to notice. "I thought Sesshoumaru killed her years ago."

There was silence before Kagome joked weakly, "Wait, you mean Sesshoumaru actually got his own hands dirty for once?"

"Sent that bitch to hell when I was still a pup," Inuyasha confirmed. Then, with a wince in Mrs. Higurashi's direction, he promptly apologized. "Sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to use that kind of language."

"Oh, of course you did," Mrs. Higurashi told him dismissively. "We're all adults here. I understand."

"So?" Miroku prompted, looking to Kagome and Sango as he tried to steer the conversation back on track.

"Naraku brought her with him when he escaped," Kagome explained. "That's why she was here. He sent her after Souta to draw me out or get even with me or something."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Sango began, shaking her head, "but I wish he'd come right out and attack you directly. This was a low blow, going after your family like that."

"We made it alright," Mrs. Higurashi reminded them all gently. "Clearly that woman failed. This shrine protected me, Kagome's grandfather, and all our neighbors who fled here. And look at Kohaku and Souta—they managed to save almost two hundred of their classmates. The Higurashis are a tough bunch."

Kohaku, realizing that she'd included him when she said 'Higurashis,' smiled at Kagome's mother. "So, now what?"

"So, now nothing," Inuyasha retorted, reaching out and ruffling both boys' hair. It was such a friendly gesture that Miroku stared at his best friend with obvious surprise. "At least for you guys. _We _need to take care of this by kicking a little ass."

"But now it's personal!" Souta protested, trying to leap to his feet. Inuyasha pinned him down with a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave it to me," Inuyasha suggested with a roguish grin.

A beat passed, and then Souta beamed up at the half-demon.

"Unbelievable!" Kagome interrupted, gaping at the scene. "I save your sorry butt, and you're looking at _him _like he's the hero?"

"I _am _the hero," Inuyasha retorted cockily. "I just happened to miss this one fight."

"Excuse—!"

"Settle down, kids!" Mrs. Higurashi butted in, remarkably chipper for a woman who had just seen her hometown nearly destroyed. (Well, Kagome had to get her optimism and resiliency from somewhere, right?) "Let's have some dinner, and I can officially meet you young men. I feel like there is a lot we need to discuss about the last two months."


	11. Memories

I have a special surprise planned for the next update. Please enjoy this one first, though!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Memories

* * *

><p>"I understand," Sesshoumaru murmured into the phone, the scratch of his pen stopping for just a second. With a very controlled, deliberate breath, he started writing again. He finished his signature with a flourish and set the sheet of paper aside for Jaken to collect later. "Anything else to report?" he asked his brother, retrieving the next form from a folder and filling it out slowly. "No, that is… acceptable."<p>

There was a moment of silence between them, and Sesshoumaru hesitated—imagine, _him_ hesitating! Especially while talking with someone such as his half-brother. The lull in the conversation dragged, and the demon lord understood that Inuyasha wanted something but refused to come right out to say what it was.

Closing his eyes, Sesshoumaru tried to imagine the situation from his sibling's point of view. What on earth was that boy waiting for?

Ah…

Yes.

That was it.

"And how are the women? You said Kagura," and here, Sesshoumaru's voice hitched very unnoticeably on the demoness's name, "destroyed their home town, yes?" A pause before, "That is good to hear. I am glad they are taking it in stride. Hysterics are not welcome in my organization." Another pause and then, "Yes, little brother, I do realize that they are not officially my employees. However, I expect them to act respectably while working under my name."

With a sigh as his only goodbye, Sesshoumaru hung up the phone. Within seconds, it started ringing, but he ignored it. (It was obviously Inuyasha calling to tell him off for ending the call so abruptly.)

"My lord," Jaken greeted in his raspy, irritating voice as he toddled into the room. "We have received several reports sighting Kagura the demoness in the area. Since you dispatched her years ago, I have of course told them all that they are blind morons."

"Jaken."

"Yes, my lord?"

"You…" Sesshoumaru trailed off and reconsidered what he was about to say. Insulting the toad demon was far too taxing, and it rarely did any good. "Kagura has returned. Alert all agents that they are to report any sightings, but they must not approach her."

"Y-yes, my lord," Jaken stuttered, bowing his way back out of the room to relay the orders.

As soon as the door clicked shut, the demon lord leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingertips together, studying his hands intently. Those hands… those hands had already killed her once. Would he do it again?

_Could _he?

Things were much less clear this time. Inuyasha said that she'd destroyed Kagome's town in order to draw the girl out on Naraku's orders. Naraku was obviously Sesshoumaru's enemy, but was Kagura? Well, if they worked together, she had to be.

"I will kill her," he decided out loud, and his low voice reverberated around his office. "_If _she asks me to."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Five Days Later<strong>_

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Kagome asked for the third time, fussing over her mother.

"Yes, dear, we'll be fine," Mrs. Higurashi responded in an equally worried voice, straightening Kagome's scarf.

"Yeah, Kags, Kohaku and I will hold down the fort!" Souta piped up from where he was leaning against the wall. His steady voice wasn't fooling anyone—he had dark circles under his eyes, resulting from several sleepless nights in a row. Like clockwork, Kagome had disappeared from the living room (where all four hunters were camping out) just after midnight every night to check on her brother. She wouldn't reappear for hours, looking exhausted and shaken herself. If Sango or anyone else asked her how Souta was doing, she'd dismiss their questions with a wave of her hand.

"We'll make you proud," Kohaku added, stooping down to peck his own sister on the cheek. He was taller than Sango now, and he still seemed to be growing even though he was already twenty years old.

"Oh, no, you won't," the brunette countered, reaching up and grabbing her 'little' brother in a headlock.

"Seriously, guys, no monster hunting," Kagome scolded, now fussing over the boys instead of her mother.

Inuyasha and Miroku, who were very unused to the loving atmosphere they'd been living in for almost a week, stared wide-eyed from the doorway. Mrs. Higurashi seemed to sense their discomfort.

"Now, boys, promise me you'll be careful, too," she fretted, turning her attention to the hunters. She brushed her hands over their shoulders (removing invisible lint) and patted their cheeks. Both were so stunned that neither could find it in them to argue that they were not, in fact, 'boys' anymore and hadn't been for years. "Take care of Kagome and Sango, or I will _hunt you down_. Mm'kay?"

"_Mom_!" Kagome squealed, sounding like a teenager.

Sango just chuckled.

Inuyasha looked terrified. Which, really, was ridiculous considering he was a fully-grown half-demon and Mrs. Higurashi was a tiny human woman. "Yes, ma'am," he responded as politely as he could. Despite his rough features and gruff voice, he managed to pull it off.

Miroku snickered. Inuyasha shot him a murderous look.

"And you," Mrs. Higurashi began, turning her attention to the human of the duo. "If you inappropriately grab Sango again, I expect it to be _after _you've married her."

This time, Inuyasha snickered. Miroku looked stricken.

"_Asako_!" Sango protested loudly, a bright shade of pink.

"I'm watching you," Kohaku warned Miroku as well, his freckles stark against his face in his seriousness.

Miroku straightened his jacket and schooled his face into a serious expression. "I have nothing but the most innocent of intentions toward your sister," he told Kohaku. He sounded sincere, but Sango still rolled her eyes at the entire scene.

"Like I'd ever marry him," she grumbled, snatching her duffle bag from the floor and throwing it over one shoulder. It was starting to worry her at how close-knit the group had become in just a couple of months. Already, she couldn't imagine her life without the hunters and all the supernatural crap that came with them. She'd even become fond of the constant teasing between everyone.

"See you guys soon," Kagome promised, smacking a kiss to her mother's, brother's, and Kohaku's cheeks. (Souta promptly rubbed at his face as if he'd been contaminated while Kohaku turned an adorable shade of pink.) "If you could marry anyone," Kagome asked Sango airily, leading the way to the door. She carefully didn't look back at her family, knowing that she'd cry if she told them a real goodbye—they would be facing Naraku sooner or later, and she wasn't completely sure how the confrontation would turn out. "Who would it be?"

"Kuranosuke, easily," Sango responded, falling into step beside her best friend.

"Wait, who's Kuranosuke?" Miroku demanded, trailing after the girls.

The last one left, Inuyasha turned to Mrs. Higurashi, Souta, and Kohaku. "I'll take care of them," he promised, rubbing the back of his head bashfully. "So, you know, don't worry about it. Okay?"

"Okay!" Mrs. Higurashi agreed cheerfully, shooing the half-demon out the door and shutting it behind the group. "So what do you think?" she asked as she turned back to the boys.

"I think I might actually be less worried about them now that they're hunting demons than I was when they lived alone in the city," Kohaku muttered, sounding disturbed by his own words.

"Inuyasha's awesome," Souta tacked on, grinning. "I think they'll be fine."

"I think," Mrs. Higurashi began shrewdly while looking toward the closed door as if she could see through it to her daughter, "that they're downplaying how scary and awful it really is."

* * *

><p>"So… where are we going?" Kagome asked, settling in the front passenger seat. She adjusted the seatbelt so it hung loosely over her shoulder instead of strangling her neck.<p>

From the driver's seat, Inuyasha shrugged and kept his eyes on the road. "I still haven't heard back from Sesshoumaru since I first reported to him the night we arrived in town."

"We're going after Kagura?" Miroku guessed from the backseat.

"Or Naraku?" Sango suggested.

Again, Inuyasha just shrugged.

"This is a great plan," Kagome joked weakly, concerned by the seriousness she saw in Inuyasha's profile. His jaw was set, his eyebrows were set low over his eyes, and his entire face was shadowed by the brim of the hat he'd impatiently jerked onto his head as they loaded up the SUV that morning.

Kagome must not have sensed it, but Miroku definitely did. He'd known Inuyasha long enough to realize that the half-demon was on edge, and when he was on edge, Inuyasha tended to—

"You're wrong," the half-demon snapped suddenly. "Nothing about this is '_great_,' Kagome. Naraku is growing stronger by the day, Kagura is on the loose, and Sesshoumaru has gone AWOL."

"L-look," Kagome began, stunned. Was this really the same man who had hugged her so tenderly only days earlier?

"And you," Inuyasha continued, raising his voice to talk right over her. "You're in danger, and it's like you don't even care. You and your crazy family just keep acting like nothing's wrong, like there isn't some psychotic demonic monster planning to _murder _you. Am I seriously the only worried one here?"

Realizing that he was concerned and not angry (really, it was difficult to tell with him), Kagome mentally backpedaled. She needed a different approach. Thankfully, while she was floundering, Miroku took over. The hunter leaned between the two seats and placed his hand on Inuyasha's shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly.

"Inuyasha—"

"Shut up," the half-demon cut him off immediately. "And put your seatbelt back on, idiot."

Snapping his mouth shut, Miroku did as told, stopping only to exchange a wry look with Sango.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said in almost the exact same tone of voice that Miroku had been using. However, the half-demon didn't cut her off Miroku noted with a roll of his eyes. "Of course I care about—about all this," she said, stumbling over the words in an interesting way that made the two in the backseat prick up their ears. Could she have been about to say, _of course_ _I care about _you?

"Cheerful is Kagome's default setting," Sango explained helpfully. The brunette met her best friend's eyes, and the two smiled at one another. "I wouldn't say she's being unrealistic about the threat; I think she's just choosing to be optimistic instead."

"What she said," Kagome agreed. "Plus," she continued, reaching out and laying her hand at the crook of Inuyasha's arm, "I have you guys to help me, right?"

"Yeah," he admitted somewhat reluctantly, his ears probably drooping under his hat with guilt over snapping at her.

"Always," Miroku added from the backseat.

"That's exactly why I'm not that worried," Kagome explained carefully, smiling around at each of her friends in turn, looking to Inuyasha last. "I know we'll keep each other safe, and we'll do the best we can. The whole reason I joined you guys in the first place was because I wanted to help as many people as I could. I'm not going to change my mind just because Naraku is back from hell and meaner than ever."

"And where Kagome goes, I go," Sango added honestly.

Miroku leaned over and teased the brunette, "You're such a good friend."

"I know I am," she agreed immediately.

Grinning, Kagome joked, "Wow, guys, I think we need to pull over for a group hug."

Before the words had even left her mouth, Inuyasha suddenly jerked the wheel, sending the SUV careening into a shallow ditch on the side of the road. Kagome screamed and jerked against her seatbelt while Sango's head painfully collided with the back of the driver's seat. Miroku fell against the door, cracking his skull against the glass before lying still. Panting, Inuyasha slowly unlocked his fingers from around the steering wheel, both grateful for and concerned by the fact that the air bag hadn't deployed. Then again, they hadn't exactly hit anything, just come to a very sudden, very violent stop.

"I wasn't being serious!" Kagome wailed, struggling to undo her seatbelt, so she could assess the damage. "What was that? What happened?"

"There was a girl," Inuyasha explained, eyes searching the road wildly. "A girl ran out into the road."

"I didn't—"

Sango groaned loudly, rubbing her forehead with a wince as she peered around at the other passengers. "Guys," she mumbled, "Something's… Miroku's not moving."

Frustrated, Kagome tugged harder at her seatbelt, finally managing to rip it off. She scrambled over the armrests into the backseat just as Inuyasha removed his own seatbelt and jumped from the SUV, rocking the entire vehicle when he used too much strength in his hurry. As he ran out into the road, Kagome checked Miroku over.

"He's still breathing," she told Sango with relief while she reached for his wrist to check his pulse. "Heartbeat's good. Oh, god, that's a lot of blood," she murmured, tilting Miroku's head gently toward herself to examine the wound. Hastily, she shrugged out of her winter coat and then removed her cardigan, which she then balled up and pressed to his temple to slow the flow of blood.

"If you've got this handled, I'll join Inuyasha. It looks like he found someone," Sango said, moving to remove her seatbelt. "You don't think I have a concussion, do you?"

Kagome tossed her best friend a stressed smile over her shoulder. "You just bumped your head against the seat, right? You should be fine, but let me know if you start feeling dizzy."

"Got it, chief," Sango joked. She had to shoulder the door open because of the angle the SUV was in the ditch, but once she had it, she stumbled out with only a little difficulty. Trudging up the bank, she got a better look at the girl who had caused the accident. Inuyasha was holding her roughly by the shoulder, looking half annoyed and half concerned. "What's going on?" Sango asked when she was closer.

"I-I," the girl stuttered. She was cute, probably only eighteen or nineteen years old. Her short brown hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she wasn't wearing any makeup. Her face, hands, and clothes were dusty with dirt and her eyes were wide, but she didn't look hurt.

"That's all she'll say," Inuyasha growled impatiently. He wasn't saying it, but Sango got the impression that this was how most normal people reacted to an encounter with the supernatural. Someone like Kagome, someone who just accepted and helped out without breaking down had to be rare. Sango wondered how she would have reacted if she'd been thrown into the supernatural like her best friend, rather than introduced slowly through conversations before seeing anything for herself. "Listen," he continued, taking the girl by both shoulders now. "What's wrong?"

With a sigh, Sango reached out and pried the half-demon's hands away. Pushing Inuyasha to the side, she bent a little to look the girl straight in the face. "Hi," she said in her most soothing, best Kagome-like voice. "I'm Sango. What's your name?"

The girl gulped, took a deep breath, and then answered, "Nazuna." Now that Sango was there (and she wasn't stuck with an overbearing, intimidating strange man), the girl seemed to regain her sense. Startling both Inuyasha and Sango, Nazuna turned to the half-demon and glared. "You didn't have to be so mean!" she snapped angrily.

He couldn't help it—Inuyasha gaped at the pushy, little, human girl. He was only trying to help! Really, Nazuna had run out in the middle of the road in front of an oncoming car, and he swerved into a ditch just to avoid hitting her, and she _yelled _at him? That bitch!

As if she sensed where his thoughts were going, Sango touched Inuyasha's elbow gently and sent him an angry look when he turned his attention to her. _Just keep quiet_, her narrowed eyes told him. "Nazuna," Sango said out loud, looking back at the girl and softening her features. "What happened? Why are you out alone in the middle of the countryside?"

"I live with my uncle on a farm about a mile back from the road. Some men broke into the house, and I ran for help. I went through the forest to get to the road quicker," she explained, her voice growing more desperate with each word. "Please," she suddenly begged, tears springing to her eyes, "you have to help me!"

"Of course we will," Sango told her soothingly. "Can you lead—oh, crap, the car," she remembered mid-sentence, turning her attention back to the SUV. It was at a forty degree angle in the ditch, one back tire still spinning.

"I don't need the car," Inuyasha muttered. "Just point me in the direction, and I'll be there in a couple minutes."

Instead of looking surprised or appreciative, Nazuna let out an angry gasp, her eyebrows knit low over her eyes. Before the hunters could register what she was doing, the girl reached up and grabbed Inuyasha's hat. She yanked it off and threw it at the ground before pointing her finger accusingly at him.

"Demon!" she shouted.

Unsure of how to respond to that, Inuyasha said, "…Yeah?"

"_Demon_!" Nazuna repeated, obviously disgusted. "I will never let a demon help me." Then, she whirled on Sango. "And _you_," she said, the word 'you' filled with the same hate and disgust as 'demon' had been. "You're cavorting with a demon!"

"Oh, I'm not the one cavorting with him," Sango responded, unable to help herself. "I just work with him. Kagome's—"

"Sango," Inuyasha cut her off, embarrassed. "Now's really not the time."

Sighing, Sango dropped her grin and forced herself to be serious again. "Nazuna, right? Listen, Nazuna. You said your uncle is in danger, and Inuyasha here has the speed and strength to _save him_. I don't know or care why you hate demons so much. You have to ask yourself: Do you love your uncle enough to _get over it_ and let Inuyasha help you?"

Nazuna opened and shut her mouth several times, a range of emotions playing across her face as she struggled to find an answer. The girl even began shaking with the internal fight. Finally, her whole body went limp, and it was obvious she felt defeated. "Fine, demon, I… I need your help. One mile in that direction," Nazuna said, pointing to the North-East. "Save him… please."

That was all he needed. Inuyasha sprinted across the road, past the stranded SUV, and disappeared into the foliage within seconds.

"You're human, right?" Nazuna asked Sango, still looking at the point in the trees where the half-demon had vanished.

"Does it really matter?" When the girl didn't answer, Sango sighed. "Yeah, the rest of us are human."

"Rest of—?"

"Hey!" Kagome shouted, crawling out of the car. Perfect timing, as usual. "Miroku's starting to wake up. I need to stitch the cut shut, though, so can one of you help hold him down for—Wait, where'd Inuyasha go?"

"To play hero," Sango told her, nudging Nazuna toward the SUV. "This here's Nazuna. Her uncle was in danger, so Inuyasha went to save him."

"Oh," Kagome said, blinking at the two women, processing the situation quickly. "That sounds like him, I guess. So, what do you guys say? Can you hold Miroku down for me while I fix him up?"

Sango and Nazuna slid down the embankment while Kagome crawled back inside the backseat. Sango followed, and Nazuna peered over her shoulder, getting a look at Miroku for the first time. Immediately, the girl blushed bright pink, and Sango tried not to roll her eyes. It looked like the hunter had a fangirl.

"Okay, where do you want me?" she asked Kagome.

* * *

><p>"I can't thank you enough," an old man said, smiling benevolently at the four hunters. Miroku listed heavily to one side, obviously in pain, but the other three didn't seem to be in too bad of shape after their car accident. "It's almost dark out; you four should stay the night here. Really, it's the only thing I can think of to repay you."<p>

"Uncle! You can't let a _demon_ stay here," Nazuna protested. Since the women had brought Miroku to the farm, she'd kept far away from everyone. It was almost as if she expected Inuyasha to go on a murderous rampage; she watched him with careful, guarded eyes. The only time her expression ever lightened up was when she glanced at Miroku. Thankfully, the hunter hadn't noticed her girlish crush yet.

"Please forgive her," the old man, Kumo Gashira, begged. "She is a bit… prejudiced against demons."

"And why shouldn't I be?" Nazuna shrieked. "They're _demons_."

"They killed her parents," Kumo Gashira elaborated, ignoring the sharp look of betrayal his niece sent him. "Back when she was very young. I'm afraid Nazuna never fully recovered."

"If it makes you feel any better, Inuyasha's only half demon," Kagome offered optimistically. "Which means he's half human. So, can't you only half hate him?"

"Absolutely not."

Kagome wilted. "Oh, well, I tried," she said to Inuyasha.

He sent her a bewildered look. "Seriously? That was your best shot?"

"It was the most logical argument I could come up with at the spur of the moment," Kagome defended herself, bumping her shoulder into his side and then settling there, leaving her body lightly pressed against his. She was so casual about it and looked so at ease that Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. He even let himself enjoy her closeness despite the audience. "Personally, I'd be fine either pressing on or staying here for the night. It's not like we had a destination in mind anyway, right?"

"What about the SUV?" Sango asked.

"I should be able to push it out by myself," Inuyasha said, remembering how shallow the ditch had been. "Other than a cracked headlight, I don't remember noticing that much damage. We can get it checked out in the next town."

"Then let's keep going," Sango suggested "We've still got an hour or two before sundown."

"No, no, please, I insist," Kumo Gashira fretted. "You all should stay the night!"

Kagome suddenly straightened up like she'd remembered something important. She grabbed Inuyasha's arm and tugged him down to her level, whispering into his (still uncovered) ear. "Hey, isn't tonight the new moon?"

Touched by her concern, Inuyasha shook his head. "Tomorrow night," he corrected in a whisper, too, feeling ridiculously giddy by the fact that they were acting so intimate, even if it was in front of a bunch of people including two strangers, one of whom hated his guts. (_You_, a small part of him accused cynically, _are becoming such a wimp_.)

"Oh, good," Kagome answered at a normal volume. "Then I have something I want to talk to you about later. For now, I guess we should agree to stay since Kumo Gashira," she paused to smile at the old man, "is being so persistent about it. We can deal with the car in the morning."

"I guess it's decided then," Miroku mumbled in a weak voice, dropping down to the couch and cradling his head. Personally, Inuyasha thought he was making a big deal out of such a little wound, but his act made Sango immediately perch next to him and check the bandages. (That was probably what Miroku was going for in the first place, Inuyasha decided.)

"I'll go fix up the guest room then," Nazuna agreed sullenly. "We only have the one."

"That's fine," Kagome replied with a grin. "We're used to bunking out together."

"Tramps," the girl remarked snidely before flouncing from the room.

"Well, isn't she a ray of sunshine?" Sango snapped, pursing her lips disapprovingly. (She acted like such a mother sometimes, Kagome thought.)

"She really is a very sweet girl," Kumo Gashira promised. "Here, I'll help you get this young man to the guest bed," he offered to Sango. Together, they each took Miroku by the arm and led him from the room.

"Hey, so," Inuyasha began, noticing that even though everyone else had left to get ready for the night, Kagome stayed leaning against him like she had no plans to go anywhere any time soon. "What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Oh! Right," Kagome began with a smile. She paused and looked around the room. Satisfied that they were alone but still cautious, she lowered her voice. "You said tomorrow is the new moon, right? I know you like to hide out somewhere safe with Miroku, but I was thinking… uhm, well, what if we hung out in town together? I mean, since you don't have to hide your demonic features, we could go to dinner and see a late movie, and for once you wouldn't have to worry about disguising yourself, _and _it will be a demon hunting-free night. We could have some fun."

"Kagome," Inuyasha said very seriously, peering at her so closely that she squirmed under his scrutiny. "Did you just ask me out on a date?"

"I believe I did," she admitted, grinning wider but blushing just a bit. "We can pretend we're normal for a night." There was a pause before Kagome quickly tried to clarify what she meant, worried he'd take it the wrong way. "Not that I don't love that you're a half-demon. I've told you that before. I just mean we can use the new moon as an excuse to forget about the supernatural for a few hours."

"No demons?"

"No demons," Kagome repeated sternly. "Just you and me."

"I think I'd like that," Inuyasha said, dangerously close to smiling.

"But first, we have to get through this weird slumber party on a stranger's farm," she pointed out, shaking her head in disbelief. "I mean, really, the situations we find ourselves in! Hey, what happened to the buglers you saved Kumo Gashira from?"

"I trussed them up like turkeys and left them out on the road after placing an anonymous tip with the police," the half-demon explained with a sardonic grin.

After sharing a laugh, the two followed the distant noises of the others in the guest room, not even noticing that they'd reached out for each other's hands.

"Please feel free to help yourselves to anything in the kitchen," Kumo Gashira was telling the other two kindly when Inuyasha and Kagome walked through the doorway.

"Uncle is always taking in strangers," Nazuno commented, not exactly kindly. "We have a tourist or hitchhiker staying with us at least once a week."

"This farm is in the middle of a long stretch of road between two towns," the old man explained. "There are a lot of people who underestimate how far the next hotel is, and they need a place to rest up for the rest of their journey. I'm always happy to help."

"That's very sweet of you," Sango said sincerely. "Opening your home to strangers can be a dangerous thing. I'm glad you two are doing okay."

"When you trust others, they tend to trust you," Kumo Gashira told them all wisely.

Miroku settled against the pillows in the single bed, looking only a little guilty that the girls would have to take the floor. He was, after all, the injured one. "Thanks again," he said politely. "I don't think I could have lasted in the car if I didn't get a little rest first."

"You'll be fine," Kagome teased him. "Stop being so dramatic. Head wounds always look worse than they really are."

"Yeah," Sango agreed as she sat on the edge of the bed, "stop being such a baby."

Kumo Gashira smiled at all of them, enjoying the display of friendship. "Have a good night," he told them, ushering Nazuna from the room. "Don't hesitate to ask me for anything," he added over his shoulder before disappearing from view.

"Such a nice man," Kagome said, smiling after him.

"Yeah…" Inuyasha agreed in a distant voice, also looking at the doorway, his face suddenly guarded. He sniffed the air once, twice, three times before shaking his head, looking confused.

"What's wrong?" Miroku asked, the first to notice.

"I… It's nothing," the half-demon muttered dismissively. "It's almost that time of the month; my senses are all jacked up."

There was a moment of silence and both women looked ready to let it go, but Miroku continued to stare at Inuyasha. They'd been partners long enough for the hunter to know when to trust the half-demon's instincts. "Well, what did you _think _you smelled?"

Kagome realized how worried Miroku looked, so she reached out and touched her fingertips to the back of Inuyasha's hand earnestly. "Yeah, you can tell us. I guess we should know by now to always prepare for the worse."

"It's hard to pinpoint," Inuyasha muttered, encouraged enough to sniff the air again. "Like the old man said, I can definitely smell a lot of strangers who have been in this room. There's actually so many scents that they're all overlapping and covering each other up, but I could have sworn…"

"Yes?" Miroku pressed.

"Out with it already!" Sango said just a bit more pointedly.

"Demon," Inuyasha concluded.

"Like a demon who was here a long time ago or a demon who is still here?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha shook his head reluctantly. "Like I said, my senses are weird so close to the new moon. I just can't tell. I mean, I didn't even notice it until now, so…"

"Hmm," Kagome hummed uncertainly, looking around the room as if she expected Kagura or someone to jump out from behind the closet door. "I guess all we can do is keep our guard up and hope we can get a good night's sleep anyway."

"I'll stay up and keep watch," Inuyasha suggested.

"Oh, no you won't!" Kagome protested immediately, surprising everyone. "If you do that, then you'll be tired tomorrow night."

"What's tomorrow night?" Sango asked innocently.

Miroku, the quick wit that he was, chuckled. "I bet I can guess," he teased with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

"Miroku!" Kagome squealed, slapping him on the shoulder in her embarrassment. He immediately cried out and grabbed his shoulder as if he was in great pain, but everyone could still see the grin on his face.

"You hit the window on your other side, dummy," Sango reminded him, punching him in the other shoulder. This time, his face really did crumple in pain, but the girls weren't moved to sympathy.

Darkness fell, and the group settled in for the night. Miroku stayed in the bed, but he gave up his pillows for the girls to use on the floor. Inuyasha sat cross-legged, his back pressed to the wall like he normally did, under the window. Kagome curled up close to his knee while Sango took the floor on the other side of the bed. Thankfully, Kumo Gashira had brought them a few extra blankets.

"Good night, Inuyasha," Kagome mumbled sleepily before yawning widely into her hand.

"Night," he answered gruffly. He was thinking fondly about how she was like a cat—she could sleep anywhere.

It wasn't until midnight that they were attacked.

Inuyasha (who, so close to the new moon really was in a slightly weakened state, had just started to doze off) jerked upright as something _skittered _across the dark window. He could hear something scratching the glass, the high-pitched _scritch scritch scritch _noise loud and annoying enough that he pinned his ears flat against his head. The night was so black with such a little moon to light it up that he had to strain his eyes to see more than just at outline.

He recognized the figure as a dead-eyed human face attached to something that faintly resembled the body of a giant spider only a second before it shattered the window pane. Inuyasha flung himself on top of Kagome to shield her from the glass, waking her up in the process.

"What?" she mumbled in her confusion, finding herself pressed into something that seemed very much like Inuyasha's chest.

"Spider heads!" Inuyasha shouted, startling both Miroku and Sango awake as well.

"What?" Kagome repeated, sounding more awake but even more confused.

"Demons," the hunter amended, leaping to his feet all while sweeping Kagome into his arms. "We gotta move—they live in packs. We're about to get swarmed. Miroku!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," the human muttered as he tripped out of the bed and almost stepped on Sango. Reaching down, he grabbed the brunette by the wrists and yanked her to her feet. "I guess a sixth day free of demons would have been way too much to ask, huh?"

As the group headed toward the doorway, Nazuna suddenly skidded into view, wild-eyed. "What's going on? _What did you do_?"

"I did nothing," Inuyasha snapped right back, shepherding everyone into the hallway. "Your farm is being attacked by spider heads."

"No!" Nazuna wailed, collapsing into a quivering pile that Kagome almost stumbled over. Sango noticed that the girl didn't need Inuyasha to explain what a 'spider head' was. "You did this!" Nazuna shrieked at Inuyasha, jabbing her finger accusingly in his direction. "It's all your fault. You brought them back here!"

"Okay, that's it," Kagome snapped, snagging the girl by the elbow and dragging her upright. "All Inuyasha has done is help you and your uncle out, and all you've done in return is blame him. He is an amazing man, and I am _done _with you being such a jerk about it. Now move!"

"Uh-oh, Nazuna broke Optimistic Kagome," Sango joked weakly, watching Kagome nudge the girl forcibly in the direction of the living room. "Now she's in angry mode."

Nazuna fought Kagome every step of the way. "What are you doing? Where are you taking me? We have to get Uncle!"

"I'll get the old man, you guys set up in the living room. I want you all back-to-back; use anything you can as a weapon. I'll be back as soon as I can," Inuyasha instructed, taking off down a separate hallway before anyone could respond.

"Aye, aye, captain!" Miroku mock saluted. He carefully arranged the three woman next to the couch, all facing outward as Inuyasha had suggested. To Nazuna's dramatic protests, he smashed a dining room chair against the floor, producing several splintery wooden stakes. "Okay," he started, eyeing the girls seriously. "Spider heads are small, ugly, and fast. They're also poisonous, so kill them before they can touch you, got it?"

"They killed my parents," Nazuna told them all darkly, taking the largest piece of wood for herself. "This is the reason I hate demons."

"Then now's when you can get your revenge," Kagome pointed out. "Inuyasha will protect your—"

Even as she was saying it, the half-demon flew into the room, looking like a cross between pissed off and terrified. Behind him, a flood of disturbing human-headed spiders poured into the room. "The Uncle's one!"

"What?" the four others demanded, sounding bewildered.

"The Uncle's a spider head! Hell, he's the biggest one!" Inuyasha barreled into the room and skidded to a stop right next to Miroku. "Keep close together, take them all out, don't hesitate. Here they come!"

"Uncle!" Nazuna screamed into the hallway, but before she could move, the spider heads were on them.

Inuyasha scratched open his own arm (which, thankfully, Kagome didn't notice) and began throwing blades of blood; he hadn't had a use for them since the werewolf demon (demon werewolf?) incident. Why had they been stupid enough to leave all the weapons in the SUV? Kagome and Sango started swinging their makeshift stakes like baseball bats, slamming into the spider heads and sending them across the room. Miroku carefully aimed and stabbed each demon that came within two feet of him, never missing a critical blow.

It was just as the group felt they were turning the tide—there were more dead spider heads than alive ones—when Kumo Gashira crawled into the room. Between his newly revealed spider legs and remaining human body, he filled the entire entryway. The most disturbing feature of all were the giant mandibles protruding out of his grotesquely distorted mouth.

"Uncle," Nazuna sobbed, taking a step toward him. Miroku immediately pulled her back with one hand, using his other to stab another spider head. "Why? Why are you doing this?"

"I've been like this all along," Kumo Gashira admitted with a cackle, reaching for them. He crawled over some of the smaller demons, skewering them in his haste to get to his targets. "And I've been eating people ever since. Right under your nose as you slept in the next room, I've been devouring all those hitchhikers and tourists you so hated. I waited until they fell asleep in that bed, and then I poisoned them. Once they were paralyzed, I ate them limb by limb as they watched."

"No!" the girl screamed.

"Oh, yes," Kumo Gashira countered, "but I think the most delicious were your parents."

"I'll kill you!" Nazuna swore, trying to wrench free from Miroku's tight hold.

"Normally, I'm so good about keeping it quiet, but this time… Well, we had four guests, and they all looked so _good_. I just had to share my meal."

"You monster!" she shouted at him. "Why didn't you just kill me, too, when you had the chance?"

"When your family showed up on my doorstep with car troubles, it was like a dream came true. But after I'd gorged myself on your mother and father, I was too full to eat you. It was then that I realized if I could only wait a few years, you would make a much more filling meal. You were so young that you easily believed me when I told you I was your long lost uncle. It was hard to restrain myself all this time, to keep from splurging early, so I had to draw in other travelers to eat in the meantime."

"You're sick," Sango snapped at Kumo Gashira, knocking away a spider head that had gotten too close to Nazuna. The girl had broken down now, leaning heavily into Miroku. Already bruised and sore from the crash earlier, the hunter was finding it difficult to remain upright and keep them both safe.

"Now I'll feast!"

Kumo Gashira pushed against the ground with all eight legs and launched himself at the group of hunters. Inuyasha, barely managing to shake off a couple of spider heads in time, threw himself in front of Miroku and Nazuna. He tackled the demon, and the two tumbled to the ground in a mass of limbs.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, turning toward them with the intent to go after him.

"Don't break the line!" Miroku ordered, stumbling back blindly to close them back into a tighter circle. "Inuyasha will be fine. Get rid of the little ones first."

Sango noticed how strained his voice was, and she recognized belatedly how badly Miroku winced with every movement. "Damn it," she growled under her breath, kicking a little spider with the face of a long-haired woman. "How many more are there?"

"We've almost got this," Kagome promised cheerfully, bringing down the chair leg so violently that the wood cracked down the middle. "Keep going!"

"Can't you tap into your priestess powers?" Sango demanded.

"I can try," Kagome said thoughtfully, "but that would mean I'd have to stand still and concentrate. And the only time I've purposely used them without a projectile was with Kikyou, and she, you know, just kind of stood there and let me kill her."

The entire house shook as Inuyasha slammed his shoulder into Kumo Gashira, throwing him into the wall. The half-demon jumped at him, one hand held out in front with fingers splayed, claws pointed. With a shout, he punched through the demon's chest, splattering the wall behind him with dark blood. Inuyasha pulled his hand back out, sending another spray of blood over the sea of dead spider heads.

"No!" Nazuna yelled, ripping away from Miroku. "This one's mine!"

The girl shoved past Inuyasha and buried her weapon in Kumo Gashira's mouth, between the mandibles. The demon jerked once before lying still, blood pooling beneath his corpse. Nazuna, through tear-blurred eyes, yanked the wooden stake out before burying it again and again in Kumo Gashira's body. Finally, she collapsed, shaking.

Inuyasha dropped his hand on top of her head, patting her hair in the most comforting way he could. "Hey, it's over," he told her.

Nazuna pulled her hands away from her face and peered around the living room, noticing that Sango, Kagome, and Miroku stood panting but triumphant in a pile of spider heads. "Now what?" she asked, looking up Inuyasha. Standing over her, his size, which had been so intimidating earlier, now seemed protective. Really, standing with the spider demons as a back drop, Inuyasha seemed much more benevolent than she had allowed herself to see earlier. He was, she thought with awe, a kind demon. They existed.

"We burn the house," Inuyasha decided, looking around at the devastated room.

"Let's do it before morning, so the smoke won't attract as much attention," Miroku suggested. "We should also tear up a circle around the house to contain the fire, to make sure it doesn't spread."

"How about we do that while you rest," Sango told him. When Miroku turned surprised eyes on her, he realized that the brunette was looking at him with an expression he'd never seen her wear before. She was worried. About _him_. And just like that time they were in the car together, when she had opened up to him and he'd returned the favor, he saw a woman who was not nearly as strong and defensive as she appeared. "Kagome, Inuyasha, and I will take care of the clean up. Why don't you sit with Nazuna at the edge of the property?"

"I think I'll take you up on that offer," Miroku replied with a faint smile.

The small moment, one that he couldn't even find words to describe, ended when Sango's face suddenly closed off again. "And hey, don't take advantage of that girl, okay? She's just had her whole universe come down around her ears."

"I would never," he swore. A beat passed, and Miroku couldn't help but know that he was looking at Sango in an entirely new light. It just wasn't one he could quite understand yet. "Not to mention Nazuna is hardly my type."

* * *

><p>Several hours away, Sesshoumaru pulled into his driveway and put his very expensive, very sleek car in park. He stepped out and straightened his business jacket, glancing casually at his mansion as he did so. Every window was dark. Every window, that is, except the one belonging to his study. Since he'd been traveling for the past several days conducting his own investigation into what he'd deemed The Naraku Mess, Jaken had been sent away in his absence. All of this meant that there was someone uninvited in his house.<p>

Sesshoumaru knew exactly who it was, too.

The demon lord didn't bother to reach for his keys; the front door was unlocked. Without hesitating, he headed straight for his study, noticing how the light from his desk lamp flooded the dark hallway through the opening his intruder had left. He pushed the door inward before standing still, not surprised in the least to find Kagura curled up in his high-backed chair.

"Hi," she purred, looking entirely at home in _his_ home.

She fit the decor perfectly, Sesshoumaru thought in a way that would have seemed whimsical for anyone else. She was wearing a blood red business suit, one that matched her eyes perfectly. If the devil was a woman, he imagined she would look exactly like Kagura.

"You are in my chair," he commented, his low voice allowing no emotion. "I would prefer it if you did not get soot all over it."

"I've taken several showers since my escape," Kagura promised with a growing smirk. "Hell can make a person such a dirty girl. I'd be lying if I didn't admit I'd be open to taking yet another shower—with you, of course."

"You have been very busy," Sesshoumaru noted, circling his desk in slow, deliberate steps. He sounded angry now. "An entire town, Kagura? You understand what sort of a position this puts me in."

"Wait," the demoness requested, reaching out and grabbing him by the tie. She wrapped her fingers around it one by one until she held the fabric in a stranglehold. "We can talk business later."

And when Kagura pulled Sesshoumaru to her, he didn't fight it. Instead, he allowed her to hungrily capture his lips and press her body against his as though she had been starved of something for a very long time. It was, after all, the least he could do after killing her in the first place.


	12. Special: Date Night

I bring to you the short, special update I mentioned in the last chapter's author's note.

**Please read!** This story has been nominated for** Best AU** at the following website: http : / bornforeachother . blogspot . com / (Remove the spaces before entering. A link is also available on my profile.) Please take the time to look over all the nominations and vote. Even if it's not for _Opacity_, I think all the authors featured would love to have as many people participate as possible. :3 Whether I win or not, I'm so happy right now and feel very honored to have been nominated!

**Update 12/04/11:** Won second place! Thanks to everyone who participated, even if you didn't vote for _Opacity_!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Special: Date Night

* * *

><p>In the final minutes before sundown, the four hunters killed time in different ways. Miroku read, Kagome took a nap, Sango cleaned her pistols, and Inuyasha watched the small city through the ninth story window. They'd splurged a little after the Nazuna-slash-spider head disaster and paid for the largest hotel room available in the first city they came across. Since the group had spent the previous night slaying an entire army of creepy, little demons and then burning down a farmhouse, most of the day after their arrival had been devoted to some much needed rest.<p>

After checking to make sure her best friend was still asleep (she was), Sango studied Inuyasha's back curiously. In two months, she realized, the two hadn't really spent that much time alone together, at least not any time where they talked like she had done with Miroku. Still, the brunette got the feeling that with Inuyasha, what you saw was what you got.

No sooner had Sango thought this that the change of the new moon overtook the half-demon. Before her eyes, she saw what she and Kagome had missed last month. From the back, she could only see the superficial changes: the white ears perched on top of his head slid down like liquid over his skull before re-solidifying as fleshy, normal ears barely peeking through his hair. As this was happening, each strand of his long, silver hair bled darker until they were inky black. Sango could have been imagining it, but the hunter even looked a little leaner under his clothes.

"Is it painful?" she asked before she even realized her mouth was open. Miroku, hearing her tentative question, looked up from his book after marking the page. Years into his partnership with Inuyasha, he had never thought to broach the subject.

"Huh?" Inuyasha responded faintly, looking over his shoulder at the two humans. Which, actually, he was one of now. He blinked, his eyes now a very normal shade of brown, and considered her words as they finally registered. "Not really," he answered finally, thoughtfully. "Maybe when I was little, but now it just... Have you ever jumped into a lake or something? I mean, a sudden immersion in really cold water."

Startled, Sango had to tell herself to actually think about it. "I guess. A few years ago, I went camping with Kohaku. We jumped off a cliff into a small lake."

"It's like that," Inuyasha explained, clearly struggling for words. He was a man of action. It was something Sango could actually understand, something she suddenly felt she had in common with the half-demon. Unlike Miroku and Kagome, to whom words came so easily, they relied on their actions to get their points across. "It's like your whole body goes into shock, and all your senses are muffled. I go from being able to hear and smell everything within half a mile, or more if the wind is good, to being able to hear and smell nothing outside of this room. It's like I'm being smothered by cotton balls."

"So," Miroku concluded, a smile playing over his face. He was still pale from his head trauma the evening before, but at least his bandage wasn't becoming bloody every few hours like before. "What you're trying to say is that you feel like you jumped into a pool of very cold, wet cotton balls."

"Shut up," Inuyasha snapped grumpily, but he was grinning a little. "It's hard to explain, okay?"

"Mmm, I bet it is," Kagome mumbled groggily, sitting up in the bed and stretching with a wide yawn. Immediately afterward, she ran her fingers through her hair several times, hoping it would lay flat. "Is it nighttime yet?" To answer, Inuyasha pointed to his head. Kagome blinked in surprise before smiling bashfully. "Oh, right, of course. Let me just freshen up a little, and then…"

"I expect you to have her home by sunrise, young man," Sango teased Inuyasha, adopting her best mothering tone. It was one she'd perfected over the years since her own mother had died, since even before her and Kohaku's father had been killed in action. "And no funny business, mister."

"Now, dear," Miroku said in a much more lighthearted tone, joining in on the fun without invitation. "They're adults. If they want to use the time making out in the back of a movie theater or renting a room at a shady motel, I am perfectly okay with those plans."

"Miroku!" Sango protested, wadding up the greasy rag she had been stripping her guns on before tossing it at the other, laughing hunter. "You're such scum!"

"Ah, but I'm handsome scum," he countered charmingly with a winning smile.

"I don't know, Inuyasha," Kagome called from the bathroom over the sound of running water. "Maybe we shouldn't leave these two here alone. They might kill each other without our supervision."

"That or tear each other's clothes off," he muttered, too quiet for the girl to hear. The other two heard him well enough, though. Miroku's grin widened, but Sango looked borderline disturbed by the mental image.

"I think I'll just go to bed early," the brunette mumbled. It could have been the hunters' imagination, but her cheeks looked a little pink.

"I'll join you," Miroku offered quickly.

Having already thrown her rag at him, Sango picked up the next closest item to lug at him. Inuyasha restrained her arm since Sango had been about to nail the already-wounded man with her pistol. "Guns are for shooting, not throwing," the half-demon reprimanded, removing the gun from her hold.

"Then give it back, and I'll shoot!"

"Guys," Kagome scolded, coming back into the room. She grabbed her winter coat and shrugged into it, buttoning it up before reaching for her scarf. "You have to promise to behave while we're gone."

"Yeah, yeah," Sango muttered noncommittally. When she noticed Kagome's pursed lips and narrowed eyes, she amended that answer by saying, "I promise not to kill or permanently damage Miroku in your absence… unless he really deserves it, that is."

"Much better," Kagome said, perching on the edge of one of the beds to zip up her boots over her jeans. She leaned over to the nightstand, her hand aiming for her purse.

"Woah!" Inuyasha interrupted. "You won't need your purse. I'll pay for everything."

Kagome's arm fell short, and she turned to the half-demon with a jokingly coy flutter of her eyelashes. "As sexist as I could take that, I appreciate it. Sango and I ran out of money a long time ago."

"…Do you think Sesshoumaru will mind that he's unknowingly funding your date?" Miroku wondered out loud, picturing the expression on the demon lord's face when he got the next credit card bill in the mail. It was difficult to figure out what he'd be feeling since, as far as Miroku could tell anyway, Sesshoumaru seemed incapable of feeling anything other than anger and boredom.

(Of course the group never could have guessed that their boss had spent the last several hours in bed with a certain brunette, red-eyed demoness who had so very recently tormented them.)

Sango pushed away from the small table and started to fuss over her best friend, straightening the front of Kagome's winter coat, wrapping the scarf tighter around her neck, and tucking her hair behind her ears. "There! You look great."

It probably should have registered just how bizarre the situation was, the fact that two of the group of four were going out on a date after they'd been sharing a hotel room together all day. Heck, they'd just been attacked by and in return murdered a bunch of spiders with human heads the night before. A girl's secret ritual of primping was completely ruined since Inuyasha as well as Miroku had just witnessed the whole thing. Still, Kagome couldn't hide how giddy she was feeling. It was as if all the terror and craziness of the past two months had been pushed aside.

If only for one night.

It was the magic of the new moon, she thought. Just as it had the power to restrain Inuyasha's demonic features, it had the power to convince everyone that they were normal for a few hours. It wasn't that she wanted to be normal or that she wanted Inuyasha to be anyone other than who he was; it was more like a chance to play make-believe.

"Ready to go?" Inuyasha asked as he pulled on his own coat, an old canvas jacket that he left unzipped.

"You're gonna be freezing," Kagome muttered with concern, looking around for another scarf to force on him. "You forget how easily humans get cold."

"I'll be fine," he replied dismissively, grabbing her by the hand and tugging her for the door before she could get a hold of anything. "You worry too much."

"It's my specialty." She quickened her pace so that she was walking by his side instead of being pulled along in his wake, and then she readjusted their hands until their fingers were interlinked. "See you guys later!" she called over her shoulder with a wide smile. Sango and Miroku both waved back at her, each with a goofy grin on their faces like proud parents watching their daughter go off to prom with the high school quarterback.

"Have fun!" Sango called after them at the same time Miroku shouted, "Be good!"

The door snapped shut behind them.

"Where to first?" Kagome asked, nestling her shoulder into his side as they approached the elevator.

"Dinner. I'm starving."

"Are you going to take charge of this whole thing even though_ I'm_ the one who asked _you_ out?"

When Inuyasha looked down at her, he noticed that she was smiling up at him, looking so at ease and happy. It felt like years since he'd first saw her standing by the side of the road with her duffel bag full of photography equipment or again when she was tied up and injured in the basement of the insane asylum. If he'd known way back then that one day he'd be holding her hand as if the intimacy wasn't completely unlike him—Hell, strike that, a small part of him _had_ known. The moment they'd met, he knew there was something there, even if he couldn't name it.

What if she hadn't come back in to help fight Naraku? What if she'd run and never looked back like the hunters had ordered her to? Naraku wouldn't be after her now, and his lackey Kagura wouldn't have just decimated her home town. She wouldn't have gotten all those bumps, bruises, and cuts fighting off freaks. She wouldn't be there.

There was a cheerful little _ding!_ as the elevator arrived at their floor, and the doors whooshed open.

Feeling the ridiculous urge to grin (at his rare good luck that Kagome was still at his side after all they'd been through), Inuyasha responded to her question with one of his own. "Are you going to fight me every step of the way with your usual stubbornness?"

Kagome pretended to consider this for several long seconds as they shuffled onto the elevator and while he pushed the button for the lobby. "Probably," she admitted.

"How about this—I pick the restaurant, but I promise not to order for you or tell you what to eat like a controlling asshole."

_Kouga always did that_, Kagome almost said. Thankfully, she stopped herself just in time. "I'd appreciate that. How about I choose the movie we see after? I picked up a local newspaper at the diner we stopped at for lunch, and there's a theater showing classics all night long."

"There a theme or somethin'?"

"Classic horror films," Kagome told him with a knowing smile.

"That sounds pretty close to perfect."

"We can buy lots of snacks and bunk out for two or three after dinner," she offered just as they arrived at the ground floor. "And that'll still give us a couple of hours to kill until sunrise."

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

><p>"You know, I never got that!" Kagome announced loudly as the two left the theater, still smiling and chuckling over some earlier conversation. They tumbled into the nearly-deserted street and took to the sidewalk, strolling leisurely under the streetlamps. The night sky was pitch black, and the city lights destroyed any chance of seeing stars. Their breaths puffed out in little, crystallized clouds.<p>

"Never got what?"

"All kinds of things. Why do the victims call out into a dark house like they expect the bad guy to answer? Or why do they separate when they know there's a killer on the loose?"

"It wouldn't be a very good movie if they were smart about everything," Inuyasha pointed out fairly. "Okay, let's say that for some reason we were in a, I don't know, haunted house..."

"Oh, I could never see that happening to us," Kagome joked with another tinkling laugh, the one that made Inuyasha feel warm despite the cold, winter air.

"What would you do?"

"If we were just normal people facing an ax murderer?" she clarified. At Inuyasha's nod, she pursed her lips and considered her answer. "I guess I'd suggest the group get in the most lit up room, stand back to back, and stay awake with weapons held out front."

"And if he had a gun?"

"…Oh. Hmm," Kagome hummed, tapping her chin. "Okay, I don't know. I guess I'd bank on some handsome hero acting as a human shield for me."

Inuyasha scoffed. "Take your own bullet," he replied, smirking.

With a fake gasp of surprise, Kagome socked him in the shoulder. He jokingly held it like it had actually hurt. "Some hero you are!" She hesitated but couldn't stop the smile from stretching across her face. "I'm kidding. You're actually a very good hero."

"I try," he said.

"You succeed," she countered, looping her arm through his own so they were walking arm in arm down the street. "How much time do you think we have?"

The hunter glanced up at the sky, as though he could read the time based on the stars. That, of course, was just plain silly as the sky was an empty expanse of darkness. Then, Kagome thought, maybe he could sense how much longer he had as a human, like an internal ticking clock. As if on cue, the half-demon sent her a lop-sided smile. "Less than an hour. We stayed longer than I thought."

"I was just having so much fun," Kagome explained, remembering the way they had curled up in the back of the almost-empty theater with their coats spread over their laps and snacks littered around them in the nearby chairs. The black and white scenes passed quickly on the screen, and Kagome was thankful that she'd taken a nap. She wasn't tired at all, just glad that she could spend that night with the arm of the man she was liking more and more settled around her shoulders, her head tilted into his neck. They were pressed so close together that every time he laughed (which he did often at the "scary" scenes), she could feel the vibrations of his chest.

"Yeah," he agreed faintly, subtly turning them in the direction of the hotel. It would take most of their time left to walk back to the room. No matter what, they had to be inside when he turned back. It was like the story of Cinderella, and he was the pumpkin coach.

"I was thinking…"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we should do this again next month. You know, on the next new moon."

"You want to make it a monthly date night?" he asked, surprised.

"Well, it's the most obvious day we should get off, right? Even Sesshoumaru would have to agree that you can't be monster hunting when you're like this." She paused, chewing over her next words before deciding not to say them. Kagome wanted to make this night, this one night a month when Inuyasha had to feel weak and isolated, into a night when he didn't have to worry about anything. She wanted to (in her very Kagome-like way) spin it into something positive. No, she _could_ say that to him, but she could also show him. "Please," she added finally, deciding it was the one thing she could say, and he would listen.

"It's a date," Inuyasha agreed. "Well, a recurring one, I guess."

"Hey," Kagome said suddenly, coming to a stop and holding his arm so he'd have to pause as well. When he looked down at her, Kagome slipped her hands into his hair under his ears, cupping his jaw line as gently as she could. She could feel the leather of her boots creak as she stood on tip-toe, wanting to close the gap between the two of them all on her own without making him stoop down to meet her halfway. It was the least she could do after all the favors she'd been asking of him lately. Here, in the streets of this strange city where all the inhabitants were asleep around them so close to dawn, she knew there was no Miroku or Sango to interrupt. It was like they were the only two people in the world right in that moment, right as she pressed her lips to his, right as he moved to wrap his arms around her entire frame and lift her up into the air.

Everything would be fine because they had this moment, this feeling, to keep safe. It was something worth fighting for.


	13. Empty

**Please read!** _Opacity_ has been nominated for another award! This time it is for Best AU/AR Fiction at Feudal Association. There are A LOT of wonderful nominees for both fanfics and fanart. Please take a look and place some votes after giving careful consideration to everyone. Personally, I am just honored to have been nominated. I love you guys! The link can be found on my profile.

**Question for readers:** Who do you guys want to see in future chapters? Also, I put up a poll on my profile about this story. Please take a look!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Opacity<p>

Empty

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><p>"Hey, guys, listen to this…" Kagome began excitedly, straightening up in the diner booth. They spent, she had long since realized, way too much time in diners; she was beginning to miss home cooked meals.<p>

"There is absolutely no way this can end well for us," Sango responded immediately, an exasperated smile tugging at her lips. For the briefest moment, Inuyasha felt inexplicably jealous over how easily the brunette could read the other woman, how naturally the two interacted with and understood one another.

Then he remembered he was the only one who had kissed Kagome senseless. The couple was still at that goofy phase where they felt giddy by stealing 'secret' kisses. Neither of them cared that they weren't fooling Miroku or Sango in the slightest.

"Give her a chance," Miroku countered fairly, poking at his cold and greasy cheeseburger with a grimace. Now, Inuyasha felt inexplicably jealous of his own best friend for defending his… well, he wasn't completely sure Kagome was his anything, but it was only a matter of time. Really, though, he needed to get control over these rash feelings; it was getting stupid. Partly because Kagome might find his possessiveness either endearing or suffocating, but also partly because it could get him in trouble in a fight.

It was a difficult line that hunters had to walk. Their whole purpose for existing was to protect people and having a specific person to fight for could make him a better, more passionate fighter. On the other hand, there was a lot of collateral damage in Inuyasha's line of work; people died all the time, and he couldn't exactly get emotional over every casualty. Worrying too much about Kagome's safety could make him too hot-tempered or careless when being calm and focused counted the most.

Thank goodness Sesshoumaru didn't have anyone to protect. Inuyasha could only imagine the destruction that would happen to keep a single person safe if his half-brother decided it was a worthy cause…

Suddenly, Kagome's face was in his field of vision, her wide, blue-gray eyes peering up at him with curiosity-edged concern. He jumped and realized that the girl was leaning across the diner table, her face pressed close to his as she tried to read his expression.

"You look like you're thinking about something serious," she commented lightly, her voice teasing.

The friendly, easy way she spoke to him wasn't unwelcome, but it still wasn't something he was entirely used to. It felt like a treat, something sweet he wanted to keep only to himself. A selfish but honest feeling he worried made him weak. Quickly, the hunter turned to their companions to gauge their reactions, but both Miroku and Sango were locked in their own conversation. (The two had taken to bickering like an old married couple lately. It was, if possible, even worse than Inuyasha and Kagome's own affectionate back-and-forths.)

Inuyasha started to respond that he was thinking about 'nothing important,' but he bit back the words. Even if only he would know about it, he didn't want to dismiss Kagome as unimportant. "Just… thinking," he muttered vaguely.

"Well, that's new," Miroku butted in with a grin.

"Bite me," Inuyasha snapped impulsively.

"Don't tempt me," Miroku responded playfully, quickly making the half-demon regret his quip.

Sango reached over the table and shoved Miroku's shoulder. "Don't be disturbing," the brunette said with a laugh. "We've met enough freaks that bite people. Now, Kagome, what were you trying to say earlier?"

"Oh, look at this," the girl said, her voice getting louder with her enthusiasm. Remembering her earlier line of thought, she picked up the newspaper sitting next to her plate and waved it in the air. "There's this old, abandoned hotel on the outskirts of this town."

Smothering a laugh, Sango accidentally interrupted her best friend. "Told you this wasn't going anywhere good…"

"I was thinking—"

Kagome cut herself off as a noisy group of teenagers entered the diner. There were three girls and two boys, all about seventeen years old. They practically tumbled through the doorway, the boys leading the way. Most of the other diners stopped talking to look at them, but they all quickly resumed their conversations when they saw it was just some local high school kids.

"Kagome? What were you saying?" Sango pressed when her best friend continued to watch the teenagers, her brow furrowed.

"I…" She trailed off, obviously distracted.

"Hey, what is it?" Inuyasha asked her. His gruff voice was edged with concern, not unusual these days. It was his protective nature, something all the men in his family shared—even Sesshoumaru, although the demon lord would never admit it.

Frowning, Kagome held a hand up to her companions, motioning for them to give her a second. Her blue eyes followed the teenagers as they collapsed into a booth not too far away. The two guys were jostling each other, laughing openly at some joke or another. It was the girls that interested Kagome—all three of them looked troubled, their young faces creased with worry or fear. They whispered among one another and kept shifting in their seats, like they didn't really want to be sitting in a diner.

"You notice that?" the woman asked her friends, still watching the students. Once they removed their winter coats, she noticed that they were all in matching school uniforms.

"Notice what?" Sango responded, her own eyes skimming over the group. When she couldn't figure out what Kagome was talking about, she cast a worried glance to the hunters, silently wondering if they were picking up on something that she couldn't. In response, Miroku and Inuyasha both shook their heads at the brunette. All three were stumped.

"Something's wrong," Kagome said seriously, her voice hushed. "Inuyasha, can you hear what those girls are talking about?"

"Yeah, sure," he answered, not actually sounding very certain despite his answer. Carefully, he lifted the edge of his hat until his ear—the one closest to the wall where other diners couldn't see it clearly—peeked out. The rest of the group stayed quiet as he concentrated, trying to pick out the quiet whispers from among all the other customers in the diner. "They…" He paused, his eyes narrowing. "Someone died at their school, which is why they got the rest of the day off."

"That explains what the boys are so excited about," Sango commented dryly. "A classmate dies, and they're just happy to have a half-day."

Kagome slid her best friend a look and shook her head, wanting her to be quiet. "What else?"

"Sounds like it was messy," the half-demon muttered. "The girls' volleyball team found the body in the gym."

"Who was it?"

Inuyasha frowned, still listening to the conversation several booths away. "They haven't said anything about that. They're freaked out, because it looked like the—oh, it sounds like it was the school nurse, not a student—it sounds like she was chopped up but missing all her blood."

"Well, that sounds unpleasant," Miroku commented. Sango rolled her eyes at him, but he just grinned back at her.

"I think we should check it out!" Kagome announced. The other hunters stared at her. "What?" she asked defensively, finally turning to look at them. "What normal killing ends with the victim being _chopped up_? This has got to be our jurisdiction."

"We don't have a 'jurisdiction,'" Inuyasha pointed out dryly, but still sounded amused.

His sort-of-but-not-technically girlfriend leaned forward, her already-wide eyes even wider and her lower lip jutting out just enough into a pout to draw his attention to her mouth. "Please?"

"Oh, god, we're never going to win another fight with Inuyasha if she keeps this up," Miroku groaned, leaning back into the booth and casting a despondent look to Sango.

"Keep what up?" Kagome demanded, flicking her eyes to the human hunter. "I'm not playing any cards that you can't play."

"You want me to give Inuyasha puppy dog eyes and pout every time I want something from him?" Miroku clarified while struggling not to laugh.

"I was not!" the woman protested, her cheeks flaring up with a blush.

"You kind of were," Sango muttered. "But… That's beside the point. I agree with Kagome; I think this might be something worth looking into."

"Everyone agrees with Kagome," Miroku lamented. "I've clearly fallen out of favor."

"You were never _in _favor," Inuyasha countered with a roll of his eyes. "Okay, how about this—"

"Yes, what is your ruling, mighty leader?"

"Miroku, _shut up_. Shit, man, what's up with you today?"

The other man pursed his lips, clearly sulking. "You know, a few months ago, it was just us on the road. I guess I'm still adjusting to all the changes around here."

"Oh, you're so full of it," Sango said with a loud laugh. "He's just in a sour mood because I beat him at target practice yesterday."

"…And there's that," Miroku admitted, running his hand through his hair and glancing away. "Sometimes, I feel my pride as a man has been a bit… bruised."

"What pride as a man?" Inuyasha grumbled, but he grinned at his best friend to soften the blow of the insult. "Anyway, as I was saying, how about we give it all day tomorrow. If we've got nothing by sundown, we move on."

Kagome considered this for several long seconds before, finally, she agreed with a, "Deal. But how are we going to do this?"

In a way that terrified his three companions, Miroku's eyes twinkled. "About that—I've got an idea…"

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you agreed to this!" Sango shouted through the bathroom door to Kagome the following morning. "Don't you find it degrading?"<p>

"I don't know," Kagome answered, her voice muffled. "It's not so bad, I guess. I never got to wear one of these when I went to school, so it's actually kind of fun. Like dress-up or something…"

Her best friend shook her head sadly and rolled her eyes to the heavens, wondering if Kagome had any self-respect. "How come Kagome's going in alone?" she asked the hunters, sounding just as protective as Inuyasha constantly did.

"Of the four of us, Kagome's the only one who can still pass as a high school student—well, as eighteen years old, at least," Miroku answered honestly.

"Are you saying that I look _old_?" Sango countered, her voice darkening.

"Of course not—!" The man almost tacked a 'my dearest' onto the end of his exclamation, but he swallowed the words quickly before it was too late. He knew Sango wouldn't appreciate his sweet nothings unlike most of the girls he'd met on the road up until then. Miroku paused to gather his thoughts before saying very smoothly, "You look like the beautiful, mature woman that you are."

"Then are you saying that I look _immature_?" Kagome demanded as she reappeared from the bathroom, managing to catch Miroku's last sentence. She stood in the doorway fiddling with the hem of her ridiculously short, pleated green skirt. The outfit was completed by knee-high white socks, black mary jane shoes, a white blouse, and a limp, red bow around her neck. She'd left her long hair down, since it made her seem more youthful than an updo would have.

The other three stopped whatever it was they had been doing and stared at her, eyeing the school uniform. Inuyasha, unsurprisingly, looked torn between appreciative (the skirt _did _show off her long legs) and disturbed (the idea of a twenty-something like himself being attractive to a 'schoolgirl,' even if it was a disguised Kagome, seemed a little creepy to him). Thankfully, Sango was the first to speak.

"Technically, Kagome, you _do _look immature in that outfit, but I think that's the point."

"I can't believe Sesshoumaru has enough clout to have gotten me enrolled in a high school, no questions asked, by homeroom this morning," Kagome muttered, glancing behind her into the bathroom mirror for one last look. "It's actually kind of flattering, huh?"

"Dear god, ye—"

Inuyasha cut Miroku off with a punch to the back of the head. "Don't," he warned in a growly voice. "Just… don't."

"Well," Kagome said, picking up a beaten-up, used yellow backpack they'd bought at a thrift store and hanging it over one shoulder, "I guess I should be going. I don't want to be late for my first day!"

"There is something so surreal about this," Sango muttered, shaking her head as if to force herself out of a daze. "Have a good day, I guess. Don't forget to text us everything you hear. We'll be standing by to do research or come rescue you or whatever."

"I'm offended that you assume I'll need rescuing," Kagome said with an insulted sniff. "Come on, Inuyasha, let's go."

The half-demon snatched the car keys off the hotel table and led the way to the door, forcing himself to keep his eyes in front of him when he passed Kagome. (He really wanted to give her a good look up and down to take in her long legs, short skirt, and the way the blouse fit her chest in all the right places, but he didn't want to subject himself to that kind of torture. There wasn't enough time or a place where he could satisfy himself of his interest between the hotel and the school.)

Completing her perfect image of a school girl, Kagome _skipped _behind the hunter, unable to stop herself from grinning. She'd always liked school—not the classes or the homework, but the atmosphere. It would be nice to go back for one day without all the actual responsibilities that came with being a student. Her goal was to investigate and plug into the gossip without alerting anyone to what she was really doing.

The two climbed inside the SUV and spent ten minutes in near silence, Inuyasha keeping his eyes on the road but his mind elsewhere. "Be careful," he finally said, sending a fleeting glance her way.

"Of course I will," Kagome answered, struggling not to be offended by everyone's assumption that she'd find herself in trouble… you know, again. Then, she reminded herself that the half-demon's protective attitude just meant he cared about her; that made it easy to accept his demands. "You guys be careful, too."

The hunter smirked. "Yeah, because hotels can be _so _dangerous."

"Hush," Kagome ordered, not taking the bait. She could see the school in the distance as they rounded a corner. "Hey, pull over for a second," she requested, pointing to an empty parking lot in front of a small building.

Confused, he did as asked. Once in a spot, Inuyasha threw the car into park and turned to look at Kagome, his eyebrows furrowed under the brim of an old baseball cap. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's _wrong_," she answered, once again fiddling with the hem of her skirt in a shy way that was both adorable and distracting. "I just wanted to do something real quick before we got too close to the school where people could see."

"See what—?"

His question was cut off as Kagome leaned into him, her seatbelt pulling tight as she closed the gap between their seats. Her eyes were closed gently, her long eyelashes brushing against her cheeks. It gave Inuyasha the two second warning he needed to understand he was about to be kissed.

"Oh_,_" he mumbled, undoing his seat belt and reaching for her, cupping the back of her head with one hand while the other tangled itself in her hair, holding her closer, keeping a connection as if he were afraid she'd disappear right there in his arms.

They quickly found a rhythm, him getting rougher with each passing second, her making appreciative little noises deep in her throat. Inuyasha was half out of his seat and half on top of her before he: one, realized she still had her seatbelt on and two, remembered that they were sitting in a parking lot in broad daylight next to a busy road. Plus, she was still in her school girl uniform, which was still half a turn on and half disturbing.

"Inuyasha…" she murmured in a husky voice that almost sent him over the edge.

Gathering up all his self-discipline, the half-demon disentangled himself from Kagome and resettled in the driver's seat. "You," he said almost accusingly, running his hand through his hair and sounding out of breath, "are trouble."

"Your hat fell off," she answered in a daze, her eyes hazy and a silly smile tugging at the corners of her swollen lips.

With a sigh, Inuyasha snatched the baseball cap off the floor of the SUV and jerked it onto his head, hiding his ears once again. "You better not do anything like that with any of those high school boys," he muttered, pulling out of the parking lot.

"I would never!" Kagome protested immediately, straightening her clothes.

They reached the school in less than a minute, and Kagome quickly undid her seatbelt and hopped out of the car. Several of the passing teenagers stopped to stare at the new girl, and most of the girls stumbled to a stop and looked in at Inuyasha, all of them jostling each other with their elbows and grinning embarrassed smiles.

"See you in eight hours," Kagome said, once again yanking the yellow backpack over her shoulder.

"Yeah," Inuyasha answered, not noticing the female attention he was receiving. (Kagome did.) "Be careful," he repeated.

The woman merely rolled her eyes and slammed the door shut, waving until the half-demon drove away. It was time to get to work.

Not sure whether to ignore the way everyone was staring at her or be friendly to her fellow students, Kagome settled on trying to look pleasant and meeting their eyes as she passed by on her way to the school entrance. Thankfully, the main office was right inside the doors.

"Hi, I need my schedule," Kagome said as soon as she was at the counter. "I'm Kagome Higurashi."

The secretary, a plump woman, glanced up at her. "Oh, the transfer student! We've been expecting you… Here you go, dear," she said after shuffling some papers around and finally finding one with Kagome's name on it. "The student body president volunteered to show you around today and escort you to your classes."

Surprised, Kagome smiled at the secretary and shook her head. "He doesn't need to do that. I can find my own way."

"I'm afraid it's too late for that," someone said, coming up behind Kagome. The girl wheeled around only to find herself nose-to-nose (well, nose-to-chin) with a boy. He was young-looking and wearing his uniform properly; sandy brown hair flopped into friendly brown eyes. "I'm Hojo."

"The student body president?"

"The student body president," he confirmed with a smile. "Really, it's no trouble. I already checked our schedules, and most of our classes are the same anyway. Where are you from?"

"Oh, uhm," Kagome hedged, momentarily drawing a blank. "Riverside," she blurted, finally.

"Cool. Which one?"

"Huh?"

"Well, there's like eight Riversides," Hojo joked, taking Kagome by the elbow and leading her out of the office. As they walked down the hallway, several classmates stopped to stare at them. A lot of them called out greetings to the president, who smiled and greeted each of them back by name. He was clearly popular.

"Oh, well, you know…" Kagome trailed off, knowing she was sounding vague and possibly mysterious—in a bad way. "I moved around a lot," she finished, hoping it sounded honest. It was, after all, fairly close to the truth.

"Who was it that dropped you off this morning?"

"You saw that?" she asked, her eyebrows raised to her hairline in surprise.

"No," Hojo admitted, actually blushing. _Blushing_! A boy in a high school uniform blushing… It was actually kind of cute, Kagome thought. "But everyone's already gossiping about it, especially the girls. It's only been ten minutes, and they won't stop spreading the word about how some ho—attractive man dropped off the new girl," he explained, stumbling over the word 'hot.' He was obviously not the kind of guy who referred to people with words like that.

"That was my… boyfriend," Kagome answered, stumbling a little herself over her own words. "He's in college," she lied.

"You just moved to town, and you already have a boyfriend?" Hojo clarified, bemused.

Well, crap… the boy was actually intelligent. "He transferred to the local university when he found out I was moving here," Kagome said, making it up as she went along. It was becoming painfully clear that she needed to change the topic before she had to lie again. It was not her best talent. "So, what's your story?"

"Nothing much," the boy admitted modestly, steering Kagome into a classroom. As they walked in, she vaguely realized it looked like a science laboratory. Chemistry? Biology? Well, as long as it wasn't math. Wait, wasn't the day supposed to start with homeroom? "My parents own the local gym and spa. I'm class president, as you already know… That's about it."

Right then, Kagome felt her cell phone vibrate in her backpack. It had to be one of the hunters asking her for an update, which reminded her of why she was there in the first place. "So, uhm, what happened yesterday?" she asked, taking a seat. Hojo promptly took the chair next to her. "I was supposed to start yesterday afternoon," she fibbed, "but they said the school had to close down for the day…?"

For the first time since they'd met, Hojo looked uncomfortable. He dropped his gaze to the table and adopted the same troubled look that Kagome had first noticed on the girls in the diner the day before. "That…" he started, struggling for words. "There was… an accident. Our nurse was found, well, she was kind of killed. In the gym. It was… It wasn't good."

"Oh my," Kagome gasped, feigning shock. "What happened?"

"No one really knows," Hojo admitted, pitching his voice low in case anyone else was trying to listen in. It didn't take long for Kagome to realize that practically everyone else in the room was talking about the exact same thing. "I didn't see it myself, but some of my friends did. They said the body was—" The schoolboy cut himself off, looking a little green.

Kagome felt bad and didn't press him to finish his sentence since she already knew what he was about to say. "That's terrible! Was the nurse a nice person?"

"Yeah, she was really friendly. No one seemed to have any problems with her. From what I overheard while I was in the office after school was let out, they think she was killed during the night. Morning gym classes were outside, so it wasn't until the volleyball team had practice that they found her."

Remember, Kagome had worked in a hospital and was good with a camera. She had no experience in interrogations and had only recently gotten into solving mysteries. She chewed over what she'd just learned for several seconds, trying to figure out what to ask next. Before she could say anything at all, the teacher walked into the classroom and called for the students' attention. Hojo, a good boy, immediately focused on the front, and Kagome was forced to do the same.

_Haven't learned anything new. Met a nice boy_, Kagome texted Sango from her lap. She'd added the second part on a whim, expecting the brunette to show her message to the hunters. As much as she liked Inuyasha, she liked riling him up just as much.

Her phone buzzed. Kagome glanced around the classroom to make sure no one had noticed; thankfully, not even Hojo (who was less than two feet away) looked at her.

_What boy?_ Sango had texted back. Well, Sango's phone had texted that… Kagome wasn't sure if it had been her best friend who had typed the message or the half-demon. Smiling almost smugly, Kagome put her phone away. When she had more information, she'd get back to them.

Class seemed to last forever, and Kagome eventually remembered why she'd hated school so much. When the bell rang, everyone got up and quickly gathered their things.

"Calculus is next," Hojo told her cheerfully. Kagome internally groaned.

"So, about this nurse…?"

"Still thinking about that?" the president asked with a grimace. He looked at Kagome and realized how intent she looked, so he forced himself to smile and keep talking about it. "The creepy thing is that there's been a lot of murders around here lately. This was just the first one to happen inside the school."

"More murders?" Kagome pressed, feeling excited that she'd finally found a lead. Then, she felt awful about feeling excited. She pushed away these conflicting emotions.

"All women," Hojo explained. "Eleven or twelve in the past few months. The city has instated a curfew—Well, I'm sure you've already heard about that, but now you know why. No one is supposed to go anywhere alone. The police have no idea what's going on, but the news last week said they think it's a whole group of people and not just one."

"Thanks, Hojo," Kagome said to the boy warmly, reaching out and taking his hand to give it a squeeze. "Really, thanks for telling me all this."

Immediately afterward, she took her phone out of the front pocket of her backpack and sent a quick text to the hunters to tell them to look into the other murders. This was more their pace; the men could do their usual lying and get into the police station or the morgue to learn more. Since she was messing around with her phone, Kagome missed the heated blush that had appeared on Hojo's face.

"N-no problem, Kagome," Hojo mumbled, embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his head in a baffled sort of way that made a group of girls passing them stumble over their feet, distracted by the sheer cuteness of their president. Meanwhile, he was still trying to figure out how telling the new girl about a bunch of murders had helped her. Didn't it make her scared? Well, if she needed someone to walk her home or something…

Quickly, the boy shook his head, remembering their earlier conversation. Kagome had a boyfriend—an older man, even. Oh, well, Hojo wasn't really the type to stop being friendly just because he had no shot with a girl. He resolved to become friends with Kagome no matter what.

During all this, Kagome (who had not noticed Hojo developing a crush and then immediately reconciling with the idea that he'd never have her) traded several texts back and forth with Sango. The hunters wanted Kagome to come home because they didn't think she'd find out anything more at the school. She disagreed; she wanted to keep looking into the nurse's death.

"Hey, Hojo," Kagome began, putting her phone away and turning the same look on Hojo that she'd used on Inuyasha the previous day—wide eyes and a slightly pouted lip. Whatever anyone else might think, she didn't do it on purpose. She wasn't _trying _to be manipulative; it was just a natural expression for her. Some men just couldn't refuse her. "Can I see the gym?"

"Uh…" the boy said intelligently, trying to process this request. "_Why_?"

Ah, once again she'd have to lie. "I want to be a detective when I," here, Kagome paused almost guiltily, "when I, you know, _grow up_." (Technically, she already was an adult.) "I think this could be a good experience."

Looking apologetic, Hojo shook his head at her. "The police have it blocked off."

"Oh," she responded, wilting a little.

Wanting to cheer her back up, Hojo offered, "I can show you where it is, though!"

"Thanks," Kagome answered honestly, and she once again missed the blush warming her guide's cheeks.

"Okay, right after calculus," Hojo said, pointing to their next classroom.

This time, Kagome didn't manage to contain her aggravated groan.

* * *

><p>"Before I say what I want to say next," Sango began seriously, surveying the morgue the hunters were standing in, "I want your guys' promise to in no way demean me."<p>

Inuyasha and Miroku shared a look, shrugged at one another, and then nodded at Sango in agreement almost in unison.

"Considering thirteen—_thirteen—_women have had all their blood sucked out and were then chopped up by what appears to be a very big knife, I request that at least one of you stays with me at all times."

"I'll do it!" Miroku immediately volunteered, obviously forgetting that he'd been a bit miffed with her the day before after she'd outshot him at the shooting range. "I would be more than happy to escort you, my—"

"I changed my mind. I want Inuyasha," Sango interrupted before Miroku could slap a pet name on the end of his sentence. The hunter looked (briefly) hurt, but seemed to rally himself. Really, Sango thought, he'd been behaving himself very well lately… "Okay, Miroku, you've got the job. But you _must _keep your hands to yourself at all times."

"When have I ever inappropriately touched you?" he protested, completely serious.

"You 'accidentally' do it all the time," Sango pointed out stubbornly, not willing to back down. Even if Miroku was (probably) the smartest of the four and (easily) the most charming, she refused to give into him.

"Those truly _are_ accidents," Miroku promised. There was the smallest pause before he smiled at her in a way that made his eyes crinkle at the corners, lighting up his whole face. "When I really touch you, you'll know it."

Despite her best efforts, Sango felt that giddy, fluttering feeling in her stomach that made her worry she actually _anticipated _him being true to his words. Thankfully, Inuyasha interrupted them with a very disturbed groan.

"Please stop," he begged.

"We listen to you and Kagome flirting all the time," Miroku countered defensively.

"We weren't flirting just now!" Sango protested. The barest hint of pink across her cheeks begged to differ.

"Seriously, can we focus on the murders?" Inuyasha asked, trying to drag their attention back to the three gurneys laid out in front of them. (The other ten victims had long since been released to their families and buried.) Piled on each slab was a small mound of hunks of flesh. There was some blood, but very little considering the carnage. "What do you think did this?"

"I'd place my bet on a vampire," Miroku answered. "I mean, they're missing all their blood."

"Yeah, but vamps don't chop up their victims. They just leave them all withered and empty," Inuyasha pointed out.

Having no previous experience with vampires, Sango suggested, "Maybe we should focus on the weapon that was used?"

"Or weapon_s_," Miroku corrected, stressing the 's' on the end of the word. "The cops did say they thought it was a group of murderers, not just one. Can you get anything off of the bodies?"

Inuyasha shook his head, his nose wrinkled. "No; this places is full of chemicals. I can't get a whiff of anything useful." He reached out and lifted the sheet to get another look at the (for lack of a better word) bodies, giving Sango almost no warning to shield her eyes. "Whatever the guy—or guys—used to do this, it was big and sharp. Bigger than a knife, bigger than a sword even."

"Did they use a machine? Like some kind of mulching machine or a shredder?" Miroku asked curiously, leaning forward to look at the gurneys as well. Sango tried not to gag.

"No, this was definitely done by hand. The pieces are all different sizes, and the edges are really rough," Inuyasha pointed out. (The brunette wondered how many dead bodies these men must have seen to become experts like this.) "It may be a group of people, but I'd say it's only one guy chopping the bodies up."

"If Kagome was here, she'd say something about how at least chopping people up was better than eating them," Sango joked weakly, brushing her bangs back from her face with a queasy chuckle.

"If it's a vampire, then it's probably drinking the blood. That's sort of like eating people," Miroku reminded her, ruining her attempt at lightening the mood, which Sango didn't appreciate.

"Speaking of Kagome, have we heard from her lately?" Inuyasha asked. Although he didn't say it, the two knew he was thinking about her offhand comment earlier that morning about how she'd met someone at the school.

Sango was pretty sure Kagome was just yanking Inuyasha's chain, but she wouldn't really have been surprised if the comment had been totally innocent and Kagome had really made a new friend. "Not since lunch when she said the gym was locked, and she couldn't get in. Classes should be over right about now."

"We should head over, then. The school's at least ten minutes aw—"

As Inuyasha was saying this, the door swung open and the policeman they'd been speaking with earlier burst into the room. "Hey, another body just got called in. Same M.O., but it's at least a few days old. You feds want to ride along?"

The hunters shared a look before starting forward as a group. "Yeah, we better go," Inuyasha agreed appreciatively, following the cop out the morgue door. Sango and Miroku fell into step behind him.

"What about Kagome?" Sango prompted.

"She'll be fine; I'll send her a text," Inuyasha muttered, typing out a message even as he said this.

* * *

><p>Several miles away, Kagome walked out of the front of the school. It may have only been eight hours, but she felt exhausted. School was a lot harder than she remembered and being 'the new girl' made everything even more difficult. In every class, she was constantly bombarded by stares and whispers or outright questions. When Hojo was with her, most people stayed away, but for the two classes she had had without the student body president, there had been a crowd around her.<p>

"It was really nice meeting you," the boy, who was still at her side, told Kagome honestly.

"Yeah," she agreed warmly. "Thanks for all your help today."

"I'm sorry the gym was locked," Hojo said, although he still couldn't understand why the girl was so insistent about getting in to see such a horrific place.

"It's not your fault," she answered fairly.

"Still…" Hojo broke off and rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his hair. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

Kagome couldn't help hesitating before she lied. "Sure. I mean, of course. See you tomorrow."

"Do you—" The boy broke off, flushed. He swallowed before forcing himself to continue. "Do you need someone to walk home with?"

It finally dawned on Kagome that this boy might actually have developed a crush on her. It seemed a bit silly, since they'd only known each other for a single school day, but then again… She had already been thinking (a little) about Inuyasha after knowing him for the duration of a battle in an old insane asylum. Was this really all that different? Well, there wasn't the adrenaline or fear, but Hojo _was_ filled with all those silly teenaged hormones.

"Thanks," Kagome said, feeling like she'd been saying that word a lot lately. This time, though, she kept her voice more aloof than she had up until then. It wasn't fair to him. "But no thanks. My, uhm, my boyfriend should be here any minute to pick me up."

"Right," Hojo replied; he'd obviously forgotten about the man in the SUV. "Well, stay where there are people, because of… well, you know, the murders and stuff."

"Of course," Kagome agreed. When Hojo turned away with one last smile, she reached out and grabbed his wrist to gain his attention again. Once his eyes were back on her, Kagome gave him a cheerful grin. "Hojo, you're a really good guy. Have a good night, and… goodbye."

"Yeah, sure, bye," he said with a bemused smile. "See you tomorrow!"

This time, Kagome didn't respond. She just smiled and watched the schoolboy walk away, knowing it would be the last time she would ever see him.

Naturally, it was as soon as Hojo was out of sight that her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her backpack and unlocked the screen, finding this message from Inuyasha: _Got a lead. Can't pick you up. Stay at the school. Be there in an hour or two._

Really, honestly, Kagome considered doing as asked, but it seemed ridiculous. She had at least half an hour of sunlight… plus there were people everywhere. The hotel had to be less than an hour's walk away, and after spending so much time sitting in the car driving everywhere for months, the idea of some exercise sounded like a good one. With that, she crossed the grass and hit the pavement, tugging her coat tighter around her and vaguely wishing she'd thought to wear gloves and a scarf.

It didn't occur to her that she'd be walking alone for almost an hour through an unfamiliar town that had been riddled with murders. Specifically, murdered _women_. Terrified citizens ducked back into their homes long before the city-instated curfew. It didn't help that it was winter, so the sun went down not long after school let out. Dusk was already falling by the time Kagome noticed how empty the streets were.

She huddled into her coat, tucking her hands into her sleeves. "This," she mumbled under her breath, "would be the perfect time to be ambushed."

If personal experience had taught her anything, the monster or demon or freak would attack at the most inconvenient moment—even if it wasn't the most unexpected. Kagome was sure that if she were in a horror movie (which her life felt like lately), the audience would be shouting at her constantly about all the mistakes she was making.

_Don't go in that room!_

_Don't split up!_

_Don't go find the mysterious noise!_

Or, this time around:

_Don't walk home alone in the dark in a city where a bunch of women have been murdered!_

It was good advice. Of course, Kagome had always drawn trouble, and she'd always been too stubborn and… Okay, sometimes, she could be a little reckless, often putting her life in danger.

Right on cue, the woman heard a noise coming from the alley to her left. She paused, squinting into the far end of the alleyway. The sun hadn't completely set yet, but the shadows stretched into the distance, making everything murky and cloudy. Kagome thought she could see something shift, but it was probably her imagination. Or a stray cat. Or a bum.

Giving herself a shake, Kagome forced herself to keep walking.

A big part of Kagome knew she should just keep going, but a small piece—that stupid, irresponsible one that everyone had—really wanted to see what was going bump in the night. Well, going bump in the early evening. Before she could stop herself, Kagome took a tentative step into the alley.

_Stop! Don't go in there!_ the invisible audience screamed at her.

"God, I'm such an idiot," Kagome scolded herself with a light laugh, stumbling to a stop. She backtracked and spun around, coming face-to-face with—

…

"Inuyasha?" she asked, blinking up at him. Immediately, a feeling of relief flooded her, and she launched her arms around his neck. Her face nestled against his chest, Kagome allowed herself an embarrassed chuckle.

"Whoa, whoa, what happened?" the hunter demanded while he patted her down to make sure she wasn't hurt anywhere. "I showed up at the school, and you were gone!"

"I thought you were following a lead with Sango and Miroku."

"Yeah, I was. I got to the murder site and realized with the way you get yourself in trouble all the time, I probably shouldn't leave you alone. I left them with the cops and took a taxi to the school… Then of course I got there, and you were gone. I tracked you here."

"Sorry," she said promptly, snuggling closer. He was like a space heater, but the warmth that pressing against his body spread through her was more than just on the surface. With one last squeeze, she pulled away and slipped her hands into his. "I have to admit, I was starting to get a little creeped out walking back to the hotel alone."

"You're an interesting mix of cowardly and brave," Inuyasha muttered dryly, hoping she couldn't tell how relieved he'd been when he saw her standing in the distance after desperately following her scent. His heart was still thudding wildly. There was no longer any doubt; she was definitely making him weak.

"Shit, you two are making me sick to my stomach."

Kagome stiffened in Inuyasha's embrace. "Who said that?"

The hunter carefully curled his arms protectively around her, wishing he had eyes in the back of his skull. The voice had come from behind him, and Kagome couldn't exactly see through his chest. They were both vulnerable. "My best guess is that it's the murderer."

"That's about what I was thinking," Kagome agreed, gulping. "At least the killer waited until you got here this time."

"Ever notice that the common denominator in these ambushes is you?"

"Yep, unfortunately."

"I find your reactions… surprising," the man said. This time, both Inuyasha and Kagome heard his footstep as he got closer. How could they have missed his approach before? "I've become used to screaming and pleading."

"Sorry, buddy, you picked the wrong victims," Inuyasha grumbled, already running out of patience. Taking a breath, the half-demon turned him and Kagome around to face their attackers.

"Huh," Kagome said, dumbfounded.

There was a large group of men blocking the street. They were all rough, tall, and unkempt, but all looked extraordinarily… human. The man at the forefront, likely the one who had been speaking up until then, was attractive but mean-looking with dark hair the length Kagome had come to associate with demons.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome prodded, her voice hushed.

He sniffed the air for several seconds before his upper lip curled with a snarl. "All human except that tool at the front. Definitely a demon—moth, I think. They smell like death."

Hearing this assessment, one of the thugs howled with laughter. "Demon? Yeah, Boss is a real demon alright. As long as he gets us all the money and drugs we want, we don't mind helping him nab a few women. And you've got a real pretty one there."

"I don't think they know their leader's demonic," Kagome noted at the same time Inuyasha growled threateningly, "You're not touching her!"

"I bet she tastes great," the ringleader said, licking his lips.

"Don't answer that," Kagome snapped to the half-demon.

"Pretty sure he's talking about your blood, anyway."

"Save yourself," the demon suggested to Inuyasha seriously. "I just want the girl. Run away, and I'll let you live."

"Not gonna happen," the hunter retorted. "What's your name?"

"Why?"

"I wanna know who I'm about to kill."

"Gatenmaru," the demon responded. "And yours?"

"Why?"

"Same reason."

"It's Inuyasha, and I'm going to rip you to shreds."

There was a standoff as Inuyasha and Gatenmaru faced off against one another. Kagome half expected a tumbleweed to blow between the two groups, like in an old western movie. It was officially dark now, and she noticed how completely empty and quiet the city was around them.

"Give it up, you're outnumbered," a thug hollered. "And unarmed."

"So are—!" Kagome swallowed the rest of her words as the men moved apart, revealing a large object they had been hiding behind them. "Ah," she said faintly, "I guess that answers the question of how all those women got chopped up."

Gatenmaru turned around and took from his men a very, very large axe; it was rusted and stained with blood. "This will be easy."

"Not so fast!"

Everyone assembled turned to face the newest arrivals, and Kagome wondered why Inuyasha wasn't picking up on all these approaching people. Thankfully, this time, it was good news. "Miroku!" she shouted, happy to see the other hunter. Sango trailed a few feet behind. The man was bent double, panting heavily, but the brunette looked ready to fight. Unlike their counterparts, they'd brought weapons. "Sango!"

"Here, take this!" Miroku shouted, straightening up to toss something to Inuyasha. The half-demon caught it easily, looking down to find that he'd been given his sword.

"Tessaiga? Why not my shotgun?"

"You can't bring a gun to an axe fight," Miroku joked, ever ready to lighten the mood.

"The line is, you don't bring a knife to a—"

Sango cut Kagome off by holding up her hand, the one not currently clutching Hiraikotsu. "Not the point," she said, already settling into a stance to throw her weapon. "Long story short, Miroku figured out that it was a moth demon who drains victims of their life energy by drinking their blood."

"See, the body we just looked at had these holes in the neck that were—"

"Yeah, yeah, we already got it, Miroku," Inuyasha cut his best friend off, pulling his sword out of its scabbard. This time, Kagome realized that the blade transformed as it was freed. It expanded, and the power it gave off was enough that even she could sense it. With a shout, the half-demon launched himself at Gatenmaru, who simply lifted his axe to block the blow. "Sango, Miroku, take out the thugs! Kagome, go hide or somethin'."

"I don't hide," Kagome grumbled as she looked around for a weapon to use herself. Miroku and Sango ran past her—the human men looked overconfident in their ability to fend off the hunters but were cut down so quickly that Kagome almost felt sorry for them.

There was an angry howl as Inuyasha was pushed back by a swing of Gatenmaru's axe. Despite how ordinary the moth demon looked, his strength rivaled that of the half-demon's. All the victims he had been feeding off of for months had fortified him. With every passing second, Gatenmaru managed to shove Inuyasha further down the street.

There was a chance, Kagome realized with growing horror, that Inuyasha could be beaten.

All it would take was one good swing of that axe, and she could lose him forever.

Without even thinking about it, the woman hurled herself into the fray, ducking under the swinging weapons and curling her hands around the moth demon's wrist. She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped with everything in her that she could do something, _anything_ to save Inuyasha.

Because she loved him.

A white-hot heat spread through her fingers, and when Kagome opened her eyes, she was blinded by the lavender glow flooding her vision. With an inhuman scream, Gatenmaru struggled to pull himself out of her purifying grip.

In his distraction, the demon missed the way Inuyasha had repositioned himself, had pulled Tessaiga back, had swung it forward with as much force that he contained in his entire body. It connected with Gatenmaru's neck, severing it so quickly that Kagome was left stunned.

"We did it," she mumbled, looking down at her hands as Gatenmaru's body dissolved into dust between her fingers.

"What was that?" Inuyasha asked, collapsing next to her and panting heavily. Kagome wondered if he'd been fighting longer than she'd realized, if the battle had taken more than the long seconds she had imagined. Had it been minutes? _Hours_?

"What was what?" she responded, her brow furrowed.

"The thing you shouted."

"I shouted something?" Kagome pressed, honestly confused by his question.

"Yeah," Inuyasha said with a cocky grin, peering up at her through his bangs. He had a look of complete confidence on his face, one that screamed arrogance. "Right as you threw yourself at that bastard, you yelled that you loved me."

The girl immediately clapped her hands to her mouth, eyes wide. "I said that out loud?" she mumbled around her fingers. When Inuyasha nodded, Kagome had to accept it. "I said it out loud," she groaned.

"Do you want to take it back?" Inuyasha asked seriously, his grin fading. "If you want to, I'll let you. We can… We can pretend I never heard a word."

There was a pause as Kagome chewed over his offer, but she eventually shook her head, a small smile stealing over her face. "I don't want to take it back since it's the truth. That wasn't exactly how I would have done it if I could have planned it, but I guess that's just how you were meant to find out. How _I _was meant to find out."

"Well, then… I guess this means we're officially dating."

She nodded, reaching out her hand to help him to his feet. He accepted it, curling his fingers around her own. Of course Kagome noticed that he hadn't answered her (accidental) profession of love, but she could let it slide this time. Maybe he'd respond the next time her own life was in danger. Knowing her, that would be soon.


	14. Tortured

This chapter takes place about a month after the last chapter, and it's New Year's Eve!

I am taking everyone's comments and poll responses into consideration. I hope this chapter answers some questions!

**For those of you who wondered what will happen to Hojo... **In the _Opacity_-verse, he will someday meet Ayumi. They have a college class together their very first day. She asks to borrow his pen, and he gladly lends it to her. After class, she returns it and thanks him. They talk for a little while, and Ayumi shyly asks if they can be study partners for the class because her two best friends—Eri and Yuka—took a different class and left her alone in that one. They will be dating within four months, engaged on the night they graduate college, and married a year later.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Torture(d)

* * *

><p>"I don't like anything about any of this," Inuyasha concluded after a ten minute long rant about how absurd he found everyone's plans for New Year's Eve.<p>

Miroku and Kagome shared a distressed look before the hunter bit the bullet and stepped forward. "You make a compelling argument, Inuyasha." (Miroku was lying; Inuyasha hadn't made any such thing. When the half-demon got mad, he spouted a ton of angry words with some curses thrown in for good measure and then left it to the others to figure out what he'd meant.) "May we now counter-argue?"

Rudely, Inuyasha scoffed. "Whatever." (Which meant, "I'd like to see you try.")

Before Miroku could respond, Kagome reached out and touched his elbow gently. When her fellow human (in fact, the only other human in the room, but that can wait for later) looked at her, she smiled up at him reassuringly. _I've got this_, she seemed to be saying. "First of all," she began, now turning her attention to her boyfriend, "it is perfectly okay for Sango to go home for the holidays."

"She left _alone _to go to a town that recently saw major demonic activity!"

"To go see her brother," Kagome added calmly. She loved bickering with him but sometimes, she knew when to hold back. "For the record, Sango and I survived many, many years without you two. She can make it a whole week back home by herself."

The half-demon made some kind of noncommittal remark that sounded an awful lot like, "Feh."

Powering through, Kagome tackled another one of his points. "May I remind you that I chose to spend the holidays with _you—_and Miroku—instead of going back with my best friend to see my own family?"

Okay. He had to give her credit for that one. However… "But—!"

Quickly, the girl cut him off. "This morning, you told me you didn't care about New Year's. Therefore, I have every right to go do my own thing."

"She's right," Miroku commented, almost smugly. "You did give up any claim over Kagome's evening the moment you said, 'Do whatever the hell you want. I'm taking a nap.'"

"I didn't mean do whatever you want _with_ _that piece of—_!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome interrupted, obviously scandalized and reaching the end of her patience. "Don't call my friends names."

"Yeah, mutt, can't we all just get along?"

Everyone turned their attention to Kagome's guest—a familiar and handsome man with a toothy smile and dancing, bright blue eyes. It was, of course, Kouga, who had shown up an hour earlier, swept Kagome into a(n overly-)friendly bear hug, and promptly demanded, "What the—Why the hell do you smell like _dog_?"

After which Kagome briefly—and blushingly—described her new relationship with Inuyasha in a hushed voice.

"You stay out of it," Inuyasha was saying now while jabbing a clawed finger at the werewolf—wait, wolf demon—accusingly. "You just don't understand the situation."

"And what situation is that?" Kagome asked, her voice sharp as she stepped between the two men. Although she had broken up with Kouga a long time ago, they were still close friends, which was exactly why she'd been excited when he'd shown up with a New Year's proposition for her. "The one where my boyfriend doesn't want to spend New Year's Eve with me yet throws a _temper tantrum _when my friend wants to take me somewhere I'd actually have some fun?"

It took all of Inuyasha's strength, but he reined in his anger. Sure, a big part of why he was so pissed was because some guy—who Kagome had, _dear lord_, been with before him—had literally swept his girlfriend off her feet, but mostly he was trying to be logical about everything. The four of them—Inuyasha, Miroku, Kagome, and Sango—had been through a lot together, and he wasn't overreacting about the danger they faced when separated.

Sure, Kagome had a point when she'd reminded him that the girls had survived most of their lives without the hunters' help. She was, however, conveniently forgetting that before a few months ago, they were not targets in the supernatural world. There was one word he could say to drive his own point home. It wasn't exactly a fair card to play, but it was still important.

"Kagome," he said, breathing through his teeth in a vain attempt to keep his anger in check, "_Naraku_."

"Oh," she gasped and deflated a little. "Right."

"Wait, what's going on?" Kouga asked her, alarmed at the look on her face. She always looked cheerful or calm or determined or even irritated, but he'd never seen her look… Not scared, exactly, but pretty close.

"Naraku's my…" Kagome trailed off and waved her hand vaguely through the air, trying to come up with a word to describe the first supernatural creature she'd ever dealt with. The fact that he'd returned stronger and more vengeful than ever was a whole other ballgame. "I guess he's like my arch nemesis."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," she confirmed. "Although, I haven't exactly heard from him since Kagura destroyed my hometown."

"_What_?"

"A lot's happened since I last saw you," Kagome explained, patting her friend on the shoulder.

The wolf demon ran a hand over his face, trying to absorb this information. It was both way too much and way too little to hear all at once. "But your family's okay?"

"Yeah. _They _are, but more than half the town's dead, though."

"And this Naraku guy did that?" Kouga asked, his brow furrowed as he tried to sort through the soap opera that had become his ex-girlfriend's life.

"No, Kagura did it, but I think she's being controlled by Naraku, and he wanted to send me a message. Or have me killed in a roundabout sort of way. I haven't quite figured it out yet."

"Hold it," Inuyasha interrupted in a loud voice, grabbing Kagome's attention. She'd said something that had piqued his interest, and there were so many emotions running across his face that she couldn't quite follow all of them. "You think Kagura's being _controlled _by Naraku?"

"Well, yeah," Kagome said, blinking at him. "She said she worked with him."

"Kagome," Miroku said carefully, "working with, working for, and being controlled by someone are all very different things."

"…So?"

"So," Inuyasha answered, looking excited in a way Kagome just couldn't understand, "if Kagura's doing things for Naraku unwillingly, we can break their connection and weaken Naraku—and get rid of Kagura. Do you remember exactly what Kagura said when she explained their relationship that day?"

"That when Naraku broke out of hell, he took Kagura with him, which is why she has to help him," Kagome explained slowly. She and Kouga shared a look, obviously not following the hunters' train of thought. "That's not word for word, but it's all I can remember. Is that important?"

"Yes!" Inuyasha shouted, coming forward and smacking a very quick kiss to her lips before darting from the room. Kagome was left reeling by the major shift in the atmosphere.

"It sounds like Naraku has a hold over Kagura, that she has to do what he asks because she owes him. They're _bound_ together, probably magically," Miroku explained briefly, just as distracted. "I don't know why we didn't think of this before…" Now, he was looking off into the distance and probably talking to himself instead of the other two. "Breaking that bond would free Kagura and get rid of one of Naraku's strongest allies. We can use this."

When he started to walk out of the room, Kagome quickly snagged his sleeve and tugged until he looked at her. "Does that mean Kagura's not… not _bad_?"

"Oh, Kagura's pretty evil," Miroku corrected with a shake of his head. "She was in hell for a reason. From what I've heard, she did a lot of terrible things before Sesshoumaru put her down, but in this case… I don't think she had a choice when she attacked your town. I think she was forced to do it. She did let you go in the end, didn't she?"

Slowly, Kagome nodded, thinking back to that day and all the destruction she'd witnessed. She didn't like to think about it often, and her family had been in a state of denial since then. The whole town was still in mourning, which was probably why Kagome chose not to return with Sango. (No matter what she'd told Inuyasha.) Kagura… "What's going to happen to her?"

Miroku gently pried her fingers from his sleeve. "I honestly don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I believe I should help Inuyasha with research; it's not exactly his best talent."

With that, the hunter followed his partner, leaving Kagome and Kouga alone in the hotel room. "What just happened?" the wolf demon asked, staring at the door through which the other two had disappeared.

"I think we just got permission to go out," Kagome answered thoughtfully, already reaching for her winter coat and scarf.

"What about Naraku?"

"We're just going to that abandoned hotel up the road, right? Which, by the way, is a great idea; I haven't had a chance to take many photos since I went on this demented road trip. I've really missed it."

"I figured," Kouga answered with his trademark friendly grin. "We've still got some daylight left if we leave now. Did you bring any equipment for nighttime pictures?"

"Of course!" Kagome replied with a smile. "I bet we can see New Year's fireworks from the upper floors—if the stairs are still there, that is."

"What if—?" Kouga suddenly broke off and rubbed the back of his head, looking like he was having a fight with himself. Finally, he seemed to break down and blurted, "What if the mutt's right? What if we run into trouble?"

"Well…" Kagome paused, her coat only half on. Next to her feet were two duffel bags full of photography equipment that hadn't seen the light of day in months. It had been her passion, a huge part of what had gotten her into all of this in the first place—other than the desire to help others, of course. Since then, photography had completely fallen by the wayside. Most of their demonic encounters hadn't even taken place in abandoned buildings, and Inuyasha was always quick to dismiss any side trips.

Sure, maybe it was more likely that she'd run into a spirit in a place like the hotel, but she'd been to dozens of urban exploration sites before ever running into Naraku. Plus…

"I'll have you there, right?" Kagome asked finally, pulling her coat on the rest of the way. She smiled up at her friend, still trying to reconcile his demonic features with the human she'd known for so long. His eyes were brighter and his hair was longer and his ears were pointier, but he was still Kouga. "You've got a handle on those werewolf powers, right?"

"Wolf demon," Kouga corrected with a chuckle, slinging his arm around Kagome's shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "But yeah, I've been working hard with Ginta, Hakkaku, and the rest of the pack. That's why they let me have a couple of days off to catch up with you. I can totally protect you."

"And I'm not exactly defenseless either," Kagome added, bumping her shoulder against his. When he gave her a confused (if not insultingly surprised) look, she realized how much of her life he'd missed out on. Before, during, and after their romantic relationship, Kouga had been one of the most important people in her life. A lot had happened lately, and she was suddenly glad he had tracked her down. She wanted to share everything with him. "Okay, you see…"

* * *

><p>"Oh, my god, this place is awesome," Kagome gasped and quickly followed up with an excited squeal. The old hotel was only five stories tall, but she could already see details in the woodwork outside that made the trip worth it. The front door and the windows on the bottom two floors were all boarded up, but Kouga easily pried one open for them to sneak through.<p>

When Kagome stopped gaping at the hotel long enough to walk over, the wolf demon thoughtfully took one of her duffel bags and slung it over his own shoulder. "Ladies first," he joked, sweeping a hand toward the yawning hole.

The glass had long since been broken, so Kagome carefully ducked through before jumping down to the floor below. She landed with a muffled _thud_, and a cloud of dust rose around her. "There's something wrong with me," she mumbled with a laugh. "I actually missed this smell."

"What—dust, decay, and mildew?"

"Yeah," Kagome answered with a brilliant smile, turning full circle to take in the foyer. She barely noticed her friend leap down beside her, landing much more gracefully than she had. He immediately wrinkled his nose and pressed his sleeve against it, trying to filter the musty air. "Look at this place!" she exclaimed, pointing toward a pair of columns at the foot of a grand staircase. "They just don't build 'em like this anymore."

"Pretty cool," Kouga commented offhandedly. He looked around the room, peering into the shadows, trying to ferret out any threats. Inuyasha would kick his ass if anything happened…

With a bit of imagination, he could picture the hotel when it was still open, decades ago. The carpet was faded now, but it would have been a bright, scarlet red. The wallpaper was peeling, but the delicate designs were still visible. And, even though the ceiling was caving in over the welcome desk, he noticed the antique lattice-work tiles that were so expensive in modern times.

He'd never really understood Kagome's fascination with old places or discovering the past or investigating forgotten relics, but he liked the way it made her happy. Plus, as long as he was around, she was less likely to fall through a floor to her death or break through a rotting staircase, right? It felt like old times. Kouga even began to forget the upheaval his life had recently gone through after his transformation into a supernatural creature.

"Need any help?" he asked, watching Kagome unzip one of her bags and pull out her camera and a tripod.

"No, I've got this. Just drop the other bag over here; I'll probably be awhile. Want to go explore for a bit?"

Kouga eyed his friend warily. "You promise to stay in _this _room while I'm gone?"

"Scout's honor!" Kagome joked, saluting the wolf demon. "Seriously, though, there's enough here that I could be busy for an hour or two. Look at all those old keys behind the desk! Oh, oh—Over there! See? The metalwork on the staircase railing is _beautiful_. Look at the intricate way it curves together."

Seeing that he was already losing her, Kouga shook his head, defeated. "Okay. I'm going to try the stairs and make sure they're safe. I want to see how high up we can go. Fireworks will probably start as soon as it's dark, and it's been getting dark so early lately…"

"Sounds like a plan."

With that, Kagome waved him off with a reassuring smile. After one last look over his shoulder, Kouga was gone.

The girl tightened her scarf around her neck, noticing how chilly it was. Somehow, it seemed even colder than when they'd first broken in—probably because she was quickly losing sunlight. Snow had drifted through the broken windows and lay in piles along the wall. Soon, she'd be too busy to notice how cold it was. It may have been months since she last took pictures, but Kagome fell right back into it. She set up her shots, took pictures, readjusted the camera's position, and took some more—all with sure, practiced movements.

As the sun dipped closer to the horizon, the shadows shifted and stretched across the floor. Kagome followed the sunlight, carefully moving the tripod each time she had to react to any change in the natural light. Soon, she was in the middle of the room at the base of the staircase, taking pictures of a mosaic in the floor below her. A third of the tiles were missing or broken, but she could still make out an elaborate forest scene.

It was discoveries like this that made Kagome go exploring in the first place. Piles of drywall and peeling wallpaper were boring and commonplace, but the mosaic and the columns and the carved woodwork outside were all unique and beautiful, especially when set against the decaying building around them.

Just as the sun finally slipped away and Kagome knew she'd have to take out her lighting equipment, she saw something move from the corner of her eye at the edge of the lens of her camera.

Straightening up, the girl surveyed the entire room, finding nothing. It was dark now, twilight, and getting darker with every passing second. Kagome knew that if she'd been taking pictures at this hotel _before_ she'd learned about the supernatural, she would have been completely at ease. Now, knowing what was really out there, she felt a shiver steal down her spine and the fine hairs on her arms stand up.

There was something in the room.

Wasn't there _always _something in the room?

One last sweep around the foyer revealed nothing, so Kagome pulled out her lights and set them up quickly. Still, it seemed empty, even after she turned them on as bright as they could go and pointed them into the dark corners. Forcing herself to think it through calmly, she got an idea. Slowly, Kagome bent over her camera, knowing she was exposing herself by limiting her view to only what she could see through the lens. She put one eye to the viewfinder. It wasn't a digital camera, but a big, heavy professional one where she had to line up her shot without using a screen to help.

This time, when she looked around the room using her camera, she found what she was searching for. She wasn't sure why—maybe it was just the way the light filtered through the lens—but her camera showed her things she couldn't see with the naked eye.

Underneath one of the windows was a hulking figure—he had to be at least ten feet tall, maybe more—hunched over, hugging his knees, shivering. His clothing was in tatters, and his limbs were bulky and disproportionate. She couldn't see his face because he had it buried in his lap.

"Hello?" Kagome called gently, her voice as friendly as she could make it considering the circumstances.

The beast stilled and very slowly lifted his head to look at her. Kagome gasped and barely managed to not pull away from the camera in horror. Definitely not human… He had a long snout, and only half his hair remained on top of his head. Still, he had very large, very gentle, very teary blue eyes.

"Hi," Kagome repeated, feeling silly with her face pressed against her camera. "My name is Kagome. Who are you?"

"I…" the thing responded, his voice thick and loud and echoing around the room. "I am…"

There was a _thud _at the top of the stairs, and Kagome watched as the figure startled upright—it was _huge_—and flickered once, twice, like an old television losing its signal. Kagome remembered seeing something like this before, back when she first met Naraku. 'It' was a spirit.

"Kagome!" Kouga shouted, hurling himself down the stairs.

"Wait—!"

It was too late. The ghost had disappeared. With an irritated sigh, Kagome pulled away from her camera and turned disapproving eyes on her friend.

"Look what you did," she scolded, pointing to the spot where the spirit had been. "I almost found out his name."

"_Whose _name?" Kouga demanded, standing at the base of the stairs with his hands hooked into claws and his mouth snarling. "Who were you talking to? I sensed… something. Crap, you're not hurt are you?"

"I'm fine," Kagome insisted, bending back over her camera and checking the viewfinder. The room was clear. She suddenly noticed that it was several degrees warmer, too. "I saw a ghost."

"Not funny," the wolf demon snapped as he forced himself to settle down. He still looked tense when he approached Kagome. "That's it, we're leaving."

"What? No!" she protested. "I've only gotten pictures of the ground floor. And I'm pretty sure it was friendly."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"He had kind eyes," Kagome explained softly, again looking off into the distance where Kouga assumed the spirit had been. Several seconds earlier, he'd heard Kagome talking and had sensed _something_, but he hadn't heard or seen anything when he first barreled down the steps. "Maybe he needed my help?" she suggested. It wasn't his imagination; she sounded hopeful.

Exasperated, Kouga grabbed his ex-girlfriend by the shoulders. "Have you ever met a _friendly _ghost, Kagome?"

"Well, no," she admitted, prying his hands off with a dirty look. "I've only met two spirits, and they were both… well, kind of murderous, but I met a zombie who was nice and needed help."

"Zombie?" the wolf demon echoed in a hollow voice. "_Seriously_? What the hell have you gotten yourself into? God, why doesn't your mom talk some sense into you? Why doesn't _Sango_? Am I the only one who's worried about what you've been up to lately?"

Dumbfounded, Kagome looked up at Kouga—_really _looked at him for the first time since he'd arrived that afternoon. He was staring down at her with concerned and almost angry eyes, his lithe body stiff with pent-up energy. He may have still been Kouga, but she couldn't ignore the fact that he was _different _now. Along with his new demonic powers, he'd also undergone other changes. In his eyes, she could easily read protectiveness and irritation and more power than he'd ever had to deal with before. Kagome felt embarrassed and guilty when she remembered how she'd rambled on about her own life. She may have been dealing with new things, but Kouga's entire existence had changed.

"I'm sorry," she began sincerely, but she forced herself to steel her voice. "I _am _sorry, Kouga. I never wanted you to worry about me, but I'm fine. And I mean it—I'm not saying that in the way most people say it. I may always be in trouble and putting my life on the line these days, but I've made it this far, haven't I? I'm growing stronger by the day and when I'm not able to save myself, I have friends who are there to help."

"What?" Kouga asked bitterly. He was obviously struggling with himself, trying to pack all the feelings that had flooded him so quickly back into a small box. It was like he felt everything more powerfully. Ginta and Hakkaku had warned him, but he'd never taken them very seriously. It was a difficult thing to imagine, the idea of feeling _more_. "Like Inuyasha?"

"Yes," Kagome responded calmly, taking a risk and patting the wolf demon on his bicep in the friendly sort of way she would do with anyone. "I trust him. More than that, I… I _love _him. But I also have Miroku and Sango, who has been training so hard. It's like she's found herself. You should see the way her face lights up when she's throwing Hiraikotsu."

"What the hell is—?"

"Giant bone boomerang," Kagome explained.

"Sango—" Kouga broke off in a strangled voice, and Kagome realized with relief that he was fighting laughter now instead of anger. "Sango uses a _boomerang _as a weapon?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, unable to stop her own grin. "You've got to see it to understand. It cuts bad guys down like a lawn mower. It's actually pretty awesome."

"And you make things glow purple," he tacked on with a chuckle, recalling her stories from earlier.

"Hey, don't make fun of me! It's a purifying light that can destroy evil," Kagome protested, blushing but grinning all the same.

With a forced sigh, Kouga let go of the rest of his sudden irritation. "You ever feel like you're living in an action-adventure movie?"

"With a dash of horror and mystery? With way too many special effects? _All the __time_. I've even started imagining an invisible audience screaming at me when I do something stupid."

"Which is also 'all the time,' right?"

"You've got me," Kagome confirmed dryly. "What can I say? I don't always think things through."

"Like Inuyasha?"

"No, that decision I actually put some time into," Kagome contradicted, her voice carefully light but still serious enough that Kouga would know not to push the issue. "Look, I know he's a little rough around the edges and he's probably the most dangerous person I've ever met, but he risks his life daily for strangers. He can be sweet and protective and strong. Plus, he's easy on the eyes."

"Yeah, I don't really care about that last part," Kouga commented dismissively. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, and Kagome could actually feel the air around her stir. "As long as you're happy."

"I am," she reassured him. "I really, really am."

Seemingly out of nowhere, he asked, "We never would have made it, huh?"

Knowing she was treading on thin ice, even if he sounded completely casual, Kagome brushed her fingertips against the back of his hand. "We work better as friends."

"We're damn good friends."

"Definitely," Kagome said firmly. "Now, do you really want to leave?"

"You really think that thing was friendly?"

"Kind eyes," Kagome reminded him with a vague smile. "Like yours."

Several seconds passed as Kouga looked down at her, trying to gauge her certainty. The lights threw shadows across her face, but he recognized how determined she was. There was strength in her eyes that he recognized, but it had grown stronger since she'd joined the hunters, and he wondered if maybe, just maybe, she got as much good out of her situation as she got bad. Kagome had always been independent, but this adventure had given her a chance to grow as a person and become powerful in ways that had nothing to do with magic.

"Okay," he agreed finally, already reaching for the tripod. "The main stairs are sturdy up to the third landing, and then I found a back staircase that can get us to the top floor."

Grateful, Kagome secured the strap of her camera around her neck. As if on cue—as if the city itself was celebrating the end of their brief but intense argument—the first firework bloomed to life outside with a loud _pop_. A green glow fell through a window across Kouga's jaw. "Thanks for being my friend."

"Any time, Kagome. We better hurry if we want to catch the show."

With another grin, Kagome bent down and quickly (but carefully) packed all of her equipment back into the bags. Before she zipped them shut, she fished out a flashlight and clicked it on. "Let's get moving," she suggested, watching Kouga scoop up both duffels. The pair picked their way over the rotting floor, and Kagome glanced one last time at the mosaic forest scene as they walked by it.

The stairs were weak in the middle, so the two stuck to the edges. It was something Kouga had learned during his many outings with Kagome both during and after they'd dated. As they climbed higher, the girl carefully took notice of how each floor felt. So far, nothing was as cold as it had been in the foyer when she ran into the spirit. It wasn't an exact science, but she figured she'd know when it was back when she started shivering again. At the third floor landing, Kouga pointed out a side corridor that led to the back staircase he'd mentioned earlier.

By the time they had reached the top floor and found a window facing downtown, it was almost time for the finale of the city's official fireworks show.

"There will be more. People all over will be setting off their own," Kouga assured her. "You can take pictures of this floor and keep one eye out the window for fireworks. We've got a few hours before midnight, when I bet most will go off."

"You're right," Kagome agreed, her eyes brightened by the reflection of the show. She was momentarily distracted when she realized they were looking out a window that was still intact. The upper floor seemed to be untouched by vandalism, which boosted her enthusiasm back to where it was when they'd first arrived. "Hey, help me set up my lights again?"

They worked together easily, falling back into a rhythm they had perfected over months of friendship. Sango had never been big on Kagome's urban exploring, but Kouga didn't mind lending her a hand when she needed it. Over the next several hours, he watched Kagome carefully line up her shots and take pictures of a hotel that no one else appreciated anymore. It was such a Kagome-like thing to do, appreciating something no matter how broken-down it was. One of her strongest characteristics was the time and care she was willing to put into everything that caught her attention.

If anyone could soften up that Inuyasha guy, it was her.

No matter how understanding Kouga was, as the time grew closer to midnight, he started to get antsy. Keeping his voice low (being in abandoned buildings always made him feel like he was in a church or some other sacred place; he always whispered), the wolf demon excused himself to make some phone calls. He hadn't been away from the wolf pack for this long since he first met them, so he wanted to check in with Ginta and Hakkaku.

The moment Kagome was alone, just as she should have predicted, the temperature dropped. When she pulled away from her camera and breathed out, she noticed how her breath puffed out in an icy cloud. _Kind eyes_, she reminded herself. Plus, Inuyasha and Shippou were both demons yet good. Sesshoumaru couldn't possibly be all bad, and even zombified Kikyou had cared about others. Already knowing what she would see, Kagome stooped down and put her eye to the viewfinder. As she scanned the room, she finally found the hulking figure she was looking for crowding the doorway.

If Kagome had known that Kouga had not been able to see nor hear the spirit, she might have been more wary.

"Hi, there," she called out, her voice soft and friendly and (thankfully) not afraid at all. "Do you remember me? Kagome?"

"Kagome," the figure wheezed. He sounded something very much like sad. Due to the shadows cast by the lighting equipment, she couldn't read the expression on his face. Every few seconds, a firework would go off in the distance and turn his body a different color. Somehow not being able to see his disfigured face did not make her feel better. "I am… Jinenji."

"Jinenji?" Kagome echoed, trying the name out on her tongue. It was a nice, solid kind of name. "Hello, Jinenji. Were… _Are_ you a demon?"

"Yes. Half." Everything he said was spoken slowly and in a very low voice, and the heavy way he breathed made Kagome worry that he was in pain. Could spirits feel pain?

Looking at him through the camera felt impolite and more than a little silly, but Kagome knew that if she stopped, she wouldn't be able to see him any more. It wasn't something she could understand; maybe Miroku could explain it later. He could be weak, which would make it difficult to maintain a visible form. There had to be something about the camera lens… Maybe he was shy? Maybe the extra barrier between Kagome and Jinenji made him feel safe enough to show himself to her?

"I have a friend who is also a half-demon. Well, I guess he's more like…" Kagome trailed off, a little embarrassed. Then she realized she was rambling about her new relationship to a dead demon. "I love him," she concluded ineptly.

Jinenji had nothing to say to that, and Kagome worried her big mouth had gotten her in trouble. After several very long seconds, the spirit lumbered forward a step, listing heavily to one side. With every inch he drew closer, flashes of light from the fireworks illuminated more of his body. No longer across an entire foyer from him, Kagome noticed how torn and thin his clothing was. All over his exposed skin, she noticed the jagged lines of scar after scar. He must have died—and lived—violently, she guessed. Some wounds looked fresh and oozing.

"Jinenji?" she called out, standing her ground even as he stumbled forward another step. Could she help him? _How_?

"Kagome," he murmured, paused, and then, "Kagome, run."

Not sure she had heard him correctly (his voice was still so different, almost distorted), she repeated, "Run? Run where?"

"_Leave_," he growled. "Kagome. Kill. Kagome must… Run. Jinenji must…"

A red firework went off nearby, and its glow flooded the room. For the briefest second, a moment that seemed to slow to a standstill as Kagome's heartbeat picked up, she once again noticed the spirit's large, round eyes. They were still teary and gentle, but they looked…

"Tortured," Kagome whispered, coming to a realization. Oh, god, those wounds _were_ fresh. This creature had been hurt—repeatedly and recently, even after death. Frozen to the spot, her mind started racing. She'd been so sure, but—

"Naraku," Jinenji said.

With a gasp, Kagome stumbled away from her camera. The spirit vanished the moment her eye was away from the viewfinder. Still, the room kept getting colder, and Kagome's thudding heart warned her that just because she couldn't see Jinenji anymore didn't mean he wasn't there. Even this far away and on a holiday, Naraku was after her. He was always after her, always waiting, always wanting to destroy her. No matter what she told others, no matter how much she lied to herself, he wasn't going to just go away.

"Run," the spirit insisted again, his voice strained. Kagome didn't need a camera to hear him.

Had Naraku done all of that to him? Had he tortured this half-demon, bent his will and forced a weak spirit to come after her? Did her_ arch nemesis _(it no longer seemed like a joke) really know her well enough to predict that she would come to this abandoned hotel? The settings were so similar, the place she had first met Naraku and where she was now.

Kagome stumbled away from her photography equipment until her back bumped into the wall. She could still hear Jinenji's strenuous breathing, and soon, she felt pressure on her throat. Fingers the size of her wrist circled it, squeezing until she could actually feel her windpipe bruise. But the hands were shaking… Kagome wasn't the only victim.

"Please," she whispered. "Jinenji, please don't do this. Fight him."

Kouga thundered into the room, his eyes wild as he found Kagome pressed against the wall. The only thing he could hear were her thin, ragged breaths as she gasped for air. She turned her eyes, brimming with tears from the pain, to him, and he rushed forward. Vainly, he swept his clawed hands through the air in front of her body, but they caught on nothing.

"I can't see anything!" he shouted, throwing a punch that only served to pull him off balance. His voice was desperate. "It's like there's nothing there! What do I do?"

Kagome shook her head, but barely managed to make it twitch. She couldn't even breathe anymore, and she noticed that the edges of her vision were gray. Her thoughts were swimming, and all she could think of were ridiculous things. Like, how this entire attack had been designed specifically for her. The setting, the way she could only see the spirit with her camera, how she was the only one who could hear him because he'd been sent after _her_. Jinenji himself. His kind eyes, and her inability to look at anyone with distrust until it was too late.

_Please_, she thought, because it was the only thing she could do anymore. _Come on, Jinenji, fight this. _

He'd had such kind eyes.

Naraku's control was not unbeatable. Kagura had let her go, hadn't she?

The setting was so familiar; the insane asylum and the hotel. But Kagome was different.

Despite everything, Kagome forced herself to focus. She thought about Jinenji and his kind eyes, the way he had pleaded with her to get away even as he tried to kill her. He didn't want to do this. He needed saving just as much as she did. So, she pictured those big, round, kind blue eyes, and she focused on all the good she'd recognized in them_. _Kagome felt her own eyes slip shut, and her arms dangled limply at her sides. Faintly, she thought she felt Kouga grab her hand and squeeze. Still, she thought about Jinenji's eyes.

The warmth started in her fingertips and spread through her entire body, and although she couldn't see it, it was as though she _felt_ the purple light. It was as much a part of her as anything else. It purified, and that was Jinenji needed right then. Up until that point in time, she had had it all wrong. Inuyasha and Sango and even Miroku were fighters, but Kagome was a healer.

When Kagome opened her eyes again, she was cradled against Kouga's chest. He was shaking her by the shoulders, his eyes flicking from her to the figure standing before them. Knowing she didn't need to be afraid, Kagome looked to Jinenji.

He was the same as before, except that somehow without the camera between them, he seemed even bigger. There were still scars along his arms, neck, and face, and he still held himself as though his own bulk humbled him. But now he seemed free.

"You see him, right?" the wolf demon asked Kagome in a strangled whisper.

"What's wrong, Kouga?" she joked weakly, her voice raspy and thin. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"What's he want?"

Kagome shook her head, her thoughts still jumbled. Fortunately, when Jinenji answered Kouga's question himself, the wolf demon could hear him. "Thank you," the spirit told Kagome. It might have been her imagination, but she was fairly certain he even smiled at her.

With that, Jinenji faded away.

* * *

><p>"So, what do we tell Inuyasha?" Kouga asked, leaning against the side of the hotel. The city was dark and quiet around them, and Kagome only vaguely realized that it was long after midnight. It was a whole near year.<p>

The wolf demon ran a hand through his hair, looking haggard and exhausted. It was probably for the best that he spent his days hanging out with a wild wolf pack instead of traveling the country dealing with hunts all the time, Kagome mused. A simple spirit had taken a lot out of the poor boy, and he hadn't actually done anything. Kagome still wasn't exactly sure about everything that had happened that night, but she knew that she'd once again beat the odds and gotten out from under Naraku's thumb. She couldn't afford to be so reckless anymore; her luck wouldn't hold forever.

It would take sacrifice. She couldn't pretend like it was no big deal, or wander off on her own, or mix up her priorities anymore. Those things could wait until after Naraku had been taken care of.

"Everything," Kagome decided finally, tilting her head back against the wall. Now that she thought about it, she was tired, too. "We tell him everything. I kind of owe that to him, especially since he was right all along about how dangerous tonight was. And it's more than just the fact that we're a couple now. As a group, all four of us need to stay honest with each other."

"I think I should come with you."

It was tempting to just agree. Kagome could be selfish and try to surround herself with as many people as she could, hoping that they would always be there to catch her when she fell. But…

"I've got this," she said instead, confidently. "I think it's about time we went after Naraku instead of waiting for him to come to us."


	15. Puppet

This chapter takes place the same night as the previous one. It will overlap (and then continue) with Kagome and Kouga's confrontation with Jinenji.

This was a difficult chapter to write because a whole heap of things had to happen. I apologize if it seems disjointed!

**Note**: _Opacity_ won second place for Best Overall Ficlet at Born for Each Other! Thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Puppet

* * *

><p>The sun had long since set. The distant <em>booms <em>of New Year's fireworks were reduced to quiet _pops_ through the library walls. They—'they' being Miroku and Inuyasha—had broken in, of course. The hunters had to use flashlights as they looked through book after book for information on supernatural ties. The beams danced across the room whenever one of the men moved and briefly illuminated empty tables and packed shelves.

"Anything?" Inuyasha asked, flipping through the crinkled pages of a very big, very dusty book.

"Notta," Miroku answered, his voice resigned. "We're going to need Sesshoumaru's personal library for this one… I have no idea why we thought the public library of the city we just happened to be in would have what we needed."

"Hey, it's worked before," the half-demon muttered, slamming his book shut. A puff of dust blew into his face, and he wrinkled his nose as he fought off a sneeze. "My big brother," and his voice was not exactly happy as he said these words, "is less than four hours away. We could get there tonight."

For several long seconds, Miroku openly stared at his best friend. When Inuyasha noticed, he leveled the human with an irritated, questioning glare.

"_What_?"

"You don't mean right now, do you?"

"We have a lead."

"Five hours ago, you didn't want to let Kagome go off with Kouga for the evening. Now you want to _abandon _her in a strange city with a _wolf _demon? You hate wolf demons!" Miroku pointed out incredulously. "Especially this one!"

"You're right," Inuyasha answered after a moment, removing his hat so that he could run his fingers through his hair. The action dispelled some of his pent-up energy, but not all of it. "I just—I hate sitting here. We finally have an idea of how to get rid of Naraku, and we're doing _research_. Why are we always doing research?"

"Because only a fool would rush into a fight like this one," Miroku responded sagely, moving aside his own stack of books. "Sesshoumaru had to take out Kagura the last time she was around, and now she's Naraku's underling. Can you imagine how powerful he must be?"

"He was in hell for, I don't know, about a month or something; he can't be _that_ strong!" Inuyasha countered, his voice strained with annoyance. "And there's no freaking way we're asking Sesshoumaru for help."

"I'm not sure we have much of a choice, Inuyasha."

The two stared at one another in the dim light, having a silent battle of wills. Finally, with a defeated sigh, the half-demon fished his cell phone out of his pocket. "Fine, let me just give Kagome a head's up about our next move," he conceded.

His phone was old and beat-up, and the screen was still set to the default wallpaper, but now that he had someone he liked calling, it was one of his most precious possessions. Before, it had been all short conversations with Miroku or even shorter ones with Sesshoumaru. Now, there was someone he actually enjoyed talking to. He found her number in his directory and put his phone on speaker while it dialed.

It rang once.

There was a soft click, and then a mechanical woman's voice echoed around the dusty room.

"_We're sorry, but the number you dialed is disconnected or no longer in service. Please hang up and try again."_

Inuyasha did as asked, his movements jerky. Just like before, there was an automated click, followed by:

"_We're sorry, but the number you dialed…"_

"Did you dial the right number?" Miroku asked, watching as the half-demon tried a fourth and then a fifth time, his eyes narrowed and fierce. "Maybe she's just out of range."

"Something's wrong," the half-demon corrected with a shake of his head. "What time is it?"

Using his flashlight, Miroku checked his watch. "A little before midnight. She's with Kouga; she should be fine."

The hunters shared a worried look, remembering that the wolf demon was very new to his powers and the good and the bad that came with them. Even more frantically than before, Inuyasha dialed his girlfriend's number, this time by memory instead of using the directory. Miroku reached across the table and grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"That's not getting us anywhere," the human pointed out while retrieving his own phone. His fingers tapped across the buttons quickly, and then he put the phone on speaker, holding it out between the two of them. Miroku held a finger to his lips, indicating that Inuyasha should keep quiet. The phone rang several times before a familiar voice picked up.

"Hello?" Sango answered, her voice a little too loud. The background was noisy, and they figured she had to be at a New Year's party. She sounded cheerful and energetic, which meant she knew nothing about Kagome being in danger (or not).

"Hey," Miroku said quickly, his voice completely under control. Inuyasha had always been jealous of his ability to stay calm no matter what. "I just wanted to check in. You know, make sure you weren't werewolf food or anything."

Sango laughed, and Miroku (almost forgetting the tense situation) nearly smiled. "Everything's great," she answered. "Midnight's only ten minutes away. I bet Inuyasha and Kagome are being all smoochy."

"Ah, well…" Miroku trailed off, leaving it open-ended so he wouldn't have to lie to Sango. She didn't seem to notice.

"It's probably the four margaritas talking, but if I was back with you guys, I'd expect my New Year's kiss from you," she confided in a stage whisper. Now that the men knew to listen for it, they could hear a tell-tale slur in her words.

"I'll have to make that up to you," Miroku promised in a slick voice. Before the conversation could get any more out of hand—Sango obviously hadn't heard from Kagome, so there was no need to worry her—the hunter told the girl cheerfully, "Enjoy New Year's! Give us a call when you're ready to meet up, and we'll let you know where to find us."

"Bye," Sango chirped, and then there was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a wet, sloppy kiss. Finally, the call ended, and the library's silence felt heavier than before.

"Now what?" Inuyasha demanded, covering his eyes with one clawed hand. A headache was brewing. "Crap, this is my fault. I knew something would happen if I let her go out with that… that…"

"You can't stay by her side every second of every day," Miroku reminded him forcefully. "You'll end up hating each other. And anyway, we have no proof that anything happened. Don't panic until we know for sure. She could have just dropped her phone."

"And it disconnected her phone number? Bullshit!"

"Being attacked by a demon doesn't exactly disrupt phone service either," Miroku pointed out. "Ghosts?"

"A ghost could," Inuyasha admitted after some hesitation. "Something about their spirit wavelength and EMF."

"You completely made that up," Miroku countered with a roll of his eyes as he grabbed one of their bags and slung it over his shoulder. He was ready to get out of that library. Once they were in the SUV, he was sure they would be able to think more clearly. "Let's get out in the open, and you can try again."

In the eight minutes it took them to reach the hotel, Inuyasha became so tense that Miroku was surprised he hadn't jumped out of the moving car to search for Kagome on foot.

Honestly, Miroku knew how tricky the group's relationships were. Inuyasha and Miroku couldn't just _order _Kagome or Sango to go everywhere they went just to protect them. The men weren't in charge or anything. Looking back, though, the hunters felt responsible for allowing the group to split up when they all knew how dangerous it was. In the end, Inuyasha had been right to be so overprotective.

"Try Kagome again," Miroku suggested, turning the engine off. They sat in the dark parking lot as Inuyasha dialed the girl's phone number for the seventh time. He didn't put the call on speakerphone, but Miroku could see by his crestfallen expression that the half-demon was listening to the same automated response.

Just then, a brilliant display of fireworks burst to life one block over.

"Happy New Year," Miroku said under his breath, hating how tense he felt. Before the girls had joined them, he never had to deal with situations like this. Of course he worried about other people, but only in a general sort of way. He and Inuyasha had drifted through life for the past several years, slaying monsters and saving people, but not really making any friends. He wasn't exactly sure he liked being so close to others. Now, all it took to tie his stomach in knots was not being able to get someone on the phone. But there were also perks—just hearing Sango's (drunken) laughter had made him want to smile.

"Damn it!" Inuyasha growled, punching the dashboard. Thankfully, the airbag didn't deploy. "Now what? What the _fuck _do we do?"

"Stay calm," Miroku suggested, ignoring the angry look his best friend tossed his way, "and call Sesshoumaru. Maybe there were other monsters or ghosts or demons reported in this city that we didn't know about."

"I say we find the building Kouga took Kagome to," the half-demon countered. "They left on foot, so it can't be—"

Someone knocked on the car window, and both men jumped, startled. When they looked to see who was trying to get their attention, no one could have surprised them more. Inuyasha quickly rolled down his window and leaned out, torn between confusion and aggression.

"Sesshoumaru? What the hell—?"

"Little brother," the demon lord greeted with a somewhat haughty sniff, glancing around at their surroundings. "May we take this discussion inside?"

"You're volunteering to go inside a seedy hotel?" Miroku asked, his eyebrows quirked in bemusement. When his boss turned a piercing stare in his direction, the human hunter immediately wished he could take back his words. "I—nevermind," he muttered, clambering out of the SUV.

He found the room key in his coat pocket and quickly unlocked the door, feeling a little weird knowing both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru were standing behind him. Working with a half-demon was one thing—being alone in close quarters with that half-demon and his full-demon brother (both of whom had _terrible _reputations) made him more than a little uncomfortable.

The three men piled inside, and Miroku had to fight the urge to offer the demon lord some tea.

"I can't get a hold of Kagome," Inuyasha confided the moment the door shut behind them.

Pulling off his (very expensive cashmere) gloves, Sesshoumaru looked around the hotel room with obvious distaste. "I know," he commented in an offhand sort of tone. Miroku and Inuyasha shared a perturbed look, both struggling to keep up with what was happening.

"How—?"

"Naraku made a move against her tonight," the demon continued, taking a seat on one of two chairs. He sat gingerly as though he expected it to buckle under his tall frame at any moment. "She survived."

"Now, wait just a—!"

"How do you know that?" Miroku asked quickly, cutting off his partner before Inuyasha could launch into an angry tirade. He wanted to avoid a fight between the brothers at all costs; he was a good hunter, but he was not nearly good enough to survive an event like that.

"I have a… let's call her an inside informant," Sesshoumaru explained. He removed his jacket to reveal a nice suit, one that made Miroku—in his worn jeans and second-hand, button-down shirt—feel shabby in comparison. "I came to, ah, _warn _you, but I received an update just before I arrived."

"Why didn't you just call us?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Your phone number has been disconnected."

Confused, Inuyasha stared down at his phone, which was still sitting in the palm of his hand. "I just used it; it's fine."

Instead of responding, Sesshoumaru took out his phone—a BlackBerry, of all things—from an inside pocket. He held down one of the buttons, and his phone automatically dialed someone. Inuyasha wondered if he should feel happy or not that he warranted a spot on Sesshoumaru's speed dial.

Almost immediately, the hunters could hear:

"_We're sorry, but the number you dialed is disconnected or no longer in service. Please hang up and try again."_

"I'm really starting to hate that message," Inuyasha growled. "So, what? All our phones are working unless we try to call each other?"

"I was able to call Sango," Miroku pointed out. "Then again, Naraku's never met her. He's probably focused on us and Kagome." As if to test his theory, Miroku called Inuyasha himself and received the same automated message. When he called Sesshoumaru, however, the call went through. "I guess no one can call us…"

"So, if Kagome tried to get a hold of either of us for help, she wouldn't be able to get through," Inuyasha concluded, rubbing the bridge of his nose with two clawed fingers. "If this is Naraku's revenge, it's pretty half-assed."

Sesshoumaru heaved a very deliberate sigh, drawing their attention back to him. "I would prefer it if you would handle this situation. It is interfering with your duties."

"No, really?" Inuyasha retorted, his voice thick with sarcasm. Miroku reached out and clapped a hand on his best friend's shoulder, and then he squeezed a little too tightly to cut off whatever else the half-demon was about to say. Inuyasha really did turn into a petulant child in his brother's presence.

"We understand," Miroku said modestly. "In fact, we were following a lead right now—and we think you can help us. We suspect Naraku has tied Kagura to him, and she's forced to do whatever he tells her to do. If we can separate her from him, we weaken Naraku."

"Correct," Sesshoumaru praised, looking almost—if Miroku dared believe it—_impressed_ by their plan. "However, Kagura is… off-limits."

Miroku and Inuyasha shared another confused look, and Inuyasha (after a dirty look from his fellow hunter) kept his voice somewhat respectful when he asked, "What? You're gonna kill her again?"

"I will take care of it," the demon lord responded vaguely, his eyes narrowed. Although they were the same color as Inuyasha's, they had an entirely different feel to them. Sesshoumaru was a much colder person, and his eyes reflected that.

"So… you're gonna kill her, right?" Inuyasha repeated, his voice deadpan. He realized how exhausted he suddenly felt and collapsed in the second chair. It (almost) didn't bother him when his half-brother repositioned himself so that their two bodies were as far apart as possible.

"If I determine her death as the appropriate solution, then yes."

"What other solution could there possibly be?" the half-demon asked, his brow furrowed low over his eyes. "I mean—she works for _Naraku_, and she decimated Kagome's hometown. We need her dead as soon as possible."

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru began, his voice very weary as though he was being forced to explain something obvious to a child, "Kagura is not real."

"We just—"

"Listen to me," the demon lord cut him off. His tone was as bland as ever, and yet the hunters could detect something just beneath it, a layer of steel that begged them not to push the subject. Miroku watched with wide eyes as Sesshoumaru reached out and grabbed Inuyasha by the upper arm, their gold eyes clashing. "Kagura was not born, she was _created_—she is a puppet, if you will. Years ago, I had to kill her in order to free her from her last master. Now, Naraku is controlling her strings since he is the one who freed them both from hell. Leave Kagura to me."

There was a moment of silence before Miroku, unable to stop himself, demanded in an astonished voice, "You're going to try to save her, aren't you?"

"She deserves a chance to choose her own path," the demon answered, releasing his grip on his half-brother. Inuyasha was so surprised by his brother's confession that he just sat there and stared. "If she chooses the wrong path," Sesshoumaru concluded as he got to his feet and put his coat back on, "then I will destroy her. Forever, this time."

The demon lord was halfway to the door before the hunters were able to collect themselves. "Wait!" Miroku called after him, not sure of what was left to say. When Sesshoumaru turned back to him, his mind raced. "How'd you find us, anyway?"

"You have been here for nearly a week," Sesshoumaru pointed out snidely, his upper lip curling. "You should really be moving on to your next job." There was a brief pause before he added, "I also had your vehicle LoJacked."

And with that, he was gone.

* * *

><p>When Kagome finally found her way back to the hotel at one in the morning, she walked in on the hunters looking very grumpy. The moment Inuyasha looked at her and saw her bruised throat, the half-demon stumbled to his feet.<p>

"I—" she started to say, but she shut up when he folded her into his arms, crushing her against his chest. She stood there for a full minute, her cheek itchy as it pressed into the rough material of his shirt, before she spoke again. Her voice was hoarse from Jinenji's attempt on her life, and it was muffled by their embrace. "I'm back," she announced weakly, failing to sound cheerful.

"We stick together from here on out," he growled into her hair, relaxing his grip enough for her to take a step back. He felt a little thrill in his stomach when she chose to stay with him, her arms loosely encircling his waist. "No more arguments."

"Deal," she agreed. She heaved a sigh before admitting, "I'm sorry I've been fighting you on it so much."

Miroku cleared his throat, gently reminding the couple that he was still in the room. "Speaking as someone with years of experience," he said cheerfully, "being stuck on the road with the same person or people for months can really wear you down. It's not surprising you want to do your own thing every once in awhile. That's why I take off for a meditative retreat once a year."

"I can understand that," Inuyasha conceded. "Once we—once everything gets settled, we'll find time to split up and have some fun. But until then…"

"We stick together," Kagome finished for him, smiling into his chest. "So, I guess you guys found out about my little adventure tonight? Well, last night, I guess."

"Where's Kouga?" Miroku asked as it dawned on him that the wolf demon hadn't followed Kagome into the hotel room.

Kagome finally pulled away from Inuyasha, but not without a gentle smile directed toward him that the other hunter didn't get to see. "He's on his way home. I wasn't sure how you'd respond, so I told him to—Wait, how do you know what happened?"

"We had a vistor," Miroku told her with a grimace.

Immediately, Kagome gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh, no—! Naraku? Did he hurt you?"

"Not Naraku," Inuyasha assured her. He slung an arm around her shoulders and guided her to a chair. When she sat down, he helped her unravel her scarf, revealing even more bruises. The half-demon swallowed back the growl that rose in his throat. "Sesshoumaru stopped by to let us know—Crap, hang on, let me fill you in."

It took the two hunters nearly ten minutes, but they repeated everything that had come up in conversation with their boss. Kagome then told them a blow-by-blow account of the Jinenji confrontation, ending with an assurance that she was just _fine, _damn it, so stop worrying so much.

"So what do we do now?" she asked after the three stared at one another for several seconds. "Do we take the fight to Naraku? Or do we wait to see what happens between Sesshoumaru and Kagura?" Just as Miroku opened his mouth to respond, Kagome cut him off with an overdramatic gasp. "Ohmygod!" she yelped, an expression torn between amusement and horror stealing across her face. "Sesshoumaru's in love with Kagura!"

"…That's what you got from all this?" Inuyasha asked, eyebrows quirked.

"Well, his inside informant is a 'her,' right? And he wants to _save _Kagura," Kagome pointed out, a giddy smile stretching her face. And then—almost as if she'd been punched—all the air left her lungs in a _whoosh_, and her smile crumbled. "Except… she killed all those people. My neighbors and Souta's classmates."

Sensing trouble, Inuyasha reached over and rubbed her shoulder, wanting to erase the pain she was feeling. He looked to Miroku, and the two wondered about how to fix things. Unfortunately, they couldn't undo the past.

"Sesshoumaru called her a puppet," Miroku explained in a thoughtful voice. "I don't… I don't think Kagura would have done all those terrible things if she had had a choice. She doesn't have control over her own life, which has to be a terrible feeling. I don't know who made her, and I don't think it matters anymore, but it sounds like Kagura has never had a moment of her own."

"We have to free her," Kagome concluded, her voice resigned. There were too many emotions in her tone for either hunter to get a good read on how she felt about her decision. "She's a victim, just like the rest of us."

Forcefully, Kagome shoved the image out of her mind, the one of the college campus in her hometown littered with bodies. It wasn't Kagura; it was _Naraku_. With every passing moment, her hatred for him burned hotter, and she hated the fact that all of this had been started when she'd gone to take _pictures _at some abandoned building. If she'd just left well enough alone—

Except then he would have gone on killing innocent people in the insane asylum, devouring them in some twisted attempt at immortality.

And poor Kagura! She was just some manufactured demoness who had spent all her life either slaughtering people or in _hell_. What a depressing existence.

"Hey…" Kagome said thoughtfully, turning curious eyes on Inuyasha. "You don't think that Kagura and Sesshoumaru, like, have—?"

"Don't finish that sentence," her boyfriend cut her off quickly, his expression horrified. "I don't want to think about it."

* * *

><p>"I can't believe I missed all that!" Sango shouted, socking Kagome in the shoulder (gently). "If anything had happened to you… Seriously, I would have hated myself."<p>

"Well, we're all fine," her best friend assured her. The four were once again in the SUV and back on the road. They had met Sango halfway between the girls' hometown and the city they had been in, ready to get moving again. After some discussion, they decided that it was 'business as usual'… for now, anyway. They were currently traveling down a deserted highway through a long stretch of trees. "See? My bruises are even disappearing!"

The brunette lightly traced over Kagome's injuries, still able to see the imprint of a massive hand on the other girl's throat. "How scary was it?"

Quietly, the woman considered it for several moments. "Scarier than Yura, but not as scary as Mayu," she decided, referring to two of their previous encounters with the supernatural. "I don't know how, but I could just sense that Jinenji was good—even if it was deep down."

"It's your priestess powers," Miroku called back to her from the driver's seat. Once again, the men were up front while the women stretched out in the back. "In addition to your ability to purify evil, you can also sense it."

"I'm a supernatural radar," the girl joked with a forced chuckle. "Hey, maybe if I have enough practice, we can just lock me in a room with Naraku, and I can dissolve his sorry ass."

To everyone's surprise, Inuyasha actually chuckled. "That's not a half-bad idea," he agreed, shooting her a look complete with warm eyes that made her want to melt. "You took him out all by yourself the first time, too."

"Yeah, after he shoved me down the stairs and tied me to a chair," she reminded him, gingerly touching her forehead as if she could still feel a gash there. "I can't believe—"

Something rammed into the side of SUV.

The vehicle rolled, and the momentum slammed it into the concrete before it skidded into a ditch. Kagome screamed, and she felt the seatbelt straining to keep her in place. At least two of the windows shattered, and a piece of glass sliced her cheek. There was a roaring in her ears, and she couldn't tell if it was blood rushing through her head or the sound of the car being crushed by the impact.

When the SUV finally shuddered to a stop, it was upside-down. Kagome dangled with her hair skimming the roof, and the seatbelt felt like a harness as it cut into her waist and torso.

Someone groaned, and she tried to figure out who it was. "Inuyasha?" she called out, her hoarse voice even more strained as all her blood rushed to her head.

"Yeah," he answered. "I'm okay."

She couldn't see him, and it hurt to turn her head more than a few inches. "Miroku? Sango?"

"Here," Miroku said quickly, his voice scratchy. There was a grunt followed by a loud thud, and Kagome wondered if the hunter had freed himself up front, probably having to battle an airbag in addition to his seatbelt.

"Sango?" Kagome repeated. Although it was faint, she could hear her voice quaver. Whether it was from pain or fear or worry, she wasn't sure. Possibly all three. "S-Sango, please…"

Suddenly, Miroku was in front of her, pushing aside her hair to check for injuries. He was crawling on the roof of the car, which made him seem upside-down to the dangling Kagome. "Careful," he ordered, bracing her head with his hand as he struggled with her seatbelt. "On the count of three, you're going to drop. Don't worry, I'll—"

"No," she cut him off. "Get Sango down first. Why isn't she answering?" In her limited field of vision—everything else was cut off or framed by her hair—Kagome watched Miroku turn away, look at something else, and frown. "What's wrong? Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Miroku promised. He reached out toward something, and Kagome imagined him brushing aside Sango's bangs or stroking her cheek. "That side of the car's caved in. Inuyasha's working on…" The hunter trailed off as there was a massive screech, the sound of metal being torn open. "Sango's unconscious, but I think she just hit her head."

This time when Kagome felt Miroku fiddle with her seatbelt, she didn't argue. When it wouldn't come unlatched, he pulled his knife from his belt. As promised, he counted to three before cutting her loose and caught her before Kagome had a chance to feel scared.

"What hit us?"

Helping her find her balance before letting go, Miroku answered grimly, "I'm sure we're about to find out."

"Any chance it wasn't a monster?"

The hunter gave her a dry, sour look that told her to stop being silly. "I got peek just before we flipped; it was huge," he admitted in a quiet voice, forcing the SUV's door open with his shoulder. Kagome let him guide her out, but not before glancing at Sango, feeling her stomach drop when she saw how banged up the other woman was, how half her body was covered in small cuts and already bruising darker. Even as Kagome watched, a rivulet of blood slid down Sango's face and obscured one closed eye.

As she ducked out of the opening, the ringing in Kagome's ears started to fade. She could hear more if she focused. There was a fight or an argument going on with a loud, echoing voice that almost hurt to hear. The tone was low and dark, and it was all she could do to understand the creature's words. When the duo stood, they saw over car's undercarriage that Inuyasha was facing off against a giant monster. Sango's rescue had been delayed.

The looming figure was at least six times the half-demon's height. His skin was the dark, murky purple of a bruise, and his eyes were blood red. Kagome stared in horror, realizing that in addition to its lanky limbs, the monster had a tail and horns. Even in the light of day, its nightmarish appearance struck a deep desire to run and hide in Kagome.

"Oh…" Kagome squeaked, wondering in a half-detached sort of way if they could get their weapons out of the wreckage. Inuyasha was currently holding his own, his legs braced as he used blood from his own wounds to send those arcs of blood at the creature. "You've got your gun, right?"

It was already in Miroku's hand, and the hunter looked down at it doubtfully. "I don't think this is going to help us much," he muttered, gesturing at the hulking beast. The monster took a swing at Inuyasha, who jumped out of the way, and its claws dug into the road.

"Anyone?" Inuyasha shouted angrily, looking over his shoulder at them. "Seriously, someone's got my back, right?"

"We're on it!" Miroku called out, but his voice was already sounding defeated. He turned to Kagome. "You feel up to trying to purify it?"

Kagome actually laughed at the suggestion. "I might be able to take out one leg," she answered, her voice a little shrill despite her best effort to stay calm. "I don't have anything to concentrate my power with, and I'm not… I'm not just walking up to it!"

"GUYS!" Inuyasha yelled, dodging another attack and ducking into a roll. He bounced back to his feet quickly. "Am I the only one who sees the giant demon? Do something!"

"We've got to get Sango out, too," Kagome reminded Miroku. "You do that, and I'll play decoy?"

"Deal." The two bumped fists as if they were athletes about to run a play out on the field.

As Miroku stealthily rounded the back of the car, Kagome ran out into the road, waving her arms over her head wildly. "Over here!" she screamed from behind the monster. "Come and eat me!"

The creature whipped around faster than Kagome expected, and he swung one clawed arm toward her. It fell short, but just barely, and Kagome felt her breath leave her so fast that she was gasping. "That's not going to work, little girl," the demon warned. Up close, his voice was loud enough that it made her ears ache. By talking, he also revealed that his jaw was lined with fangs the size of her hand. "Decoys are a waste of time."

"You sure about that?" Inuyasha demanded, using the distraction to leap into the air from behind the monster and drop toward its head from above. His hands were outstretched, his fingers spread wide to give him the widest attack. Before he even made contact, the demon twitched him aside with its whip-like tail, and the half-demon sailed across the road and into a tree. Kagome watched as his head collided with a branch. Inuyasha dropped to the ground, his eyes closed with a grimace.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed. He didn't answer, and her heart leaped into her throat.

"You're defenseless," the demon teased Kagome, leaning down so that his massive head hovered too close to her body. She could feel his breath all over her skin, and it was warm and rank. "You're too afraid to touch me, to see if you can—_purify_ me?" He laughed at her, openly, and it sent tingles down her spine. "There's not enough of you, little girl, to take care of all of me._ I will devour you._"

"Miroku?" Kagome shouted rather than answering, but her voice trembled.

"You're doing great, Kagome!" the hunter encouraged from somewhere behind the demon. "One more minute."

The monster reached down and ran the tip of his claw along Kagome's jawline, slicing through the first layer of skin but not drawing blood. Yet. "I can hear your thoughts, every single one of them. Racing through your mind, so frantic, so desperate. Who am I? Why am I here? I was _sent_."

"By Naraku," Kagome whispered.

The creature grinned wider, dropping his hand so that his long, clawed fingers curled around Kagome's body, trapping her arms against her sides. His grip brought to life pain from the impact that she hadn't had the time to notice before. Her ribs felt like they were on fire, and she struggled not to scream as he tightened his hold until she could hear her spine creak in protest. "I am Goshinki, and I will be the one who kills you."

"Not if I can help—!"

Goshinki lunged to the side, dragging Kagome with him, and narrowly avoided Miroku as the hunter hurled his combat knife at the demon's face. As Kagome's world spun, she managed to glimpse Miroku running toward them, aiming his .45 pistol as if the gun stood half a chance against the towering demon. To free up some of the weight, Goshinki tossed Kagome aside. She flew several yards before colliding with the side of the smoking wreckage of the SUV. A ragged piece of metal pierced through the fabric of her coat and into her arm.

Kagome cried out, the sound echoing around the space until it reached Inuyasha's ears.

His eyes snapped open.

They bled red.

"You little gnat!" Goshinki hissed, using two of his claws to flick Miroku away. The human bounced three times against the concrete before skidding several feet, his shirt ripping open in the process. He groaned and let his head drop to the ground, fighting to catch his breath.

Trying not to cry from the pain, Kagome struggled to her hands and knees. From there, she tried to push herself to her feet. All of her bones were aching. The girl looked down at her hands, seeing the raw skin of her palms, wondering if she really had enough power in her tiny fingers to take out such a huge monster. This wouldn't be freeing Kikyou or severing Naraku's hold over Jinenji; she needed to rip this monster apart, and she just didn't think her powers were built for something like that. It was too aggressive for her little purple glow.

There was movement, and Kagome forced her gaze up in time to see Inuyasha climb to his own feet, leaning heavily to one side. The sleeve of his jacket had torn off, revealing the shredded fabric of the shirt underneath. His hat was long gone, and his hair fell in a curtain around his face. Still, Kagome noticed the tense, feral way he held his body as though he was preparing himself to charge or pounce or just fly apart into a million pieces. When he shook his bangs out of his face, she noticed how he'd changed.

It wasn't Inuyasha anymore.

It was something entirely different.

"Woah there, buddy," Miroku called out, getting his own first look at the other hunter. "What's wrong with you?"

With wide eyes, Kagome stumbled forward a few steps and mumbled, "I don't think he's going to answer you. He looks possessed."

"By what?" Miroku demanded, sitting up and glancing around them at the chaos that the battle had caused so far. It looked like a bomb had gone off. In addition to the smoking wreckage of the SUV, the road was cobwebbed with cracks, and there were half a dozen trees that had been torn up by their roots. "Because, you know, the _giant demon_ wasn't enough, so now Inuyasha's possessed?"

"His eyes are red, Miroku. That's not normal."

Even Goshinki had paused in his devastation. He stood off to the side, surveying the little band of hunters he'd been sent to eradicate. Until now, he'd been playing with them, like a cat with a couple of toy mice. Their thoughts and plans hadn't been very original, and they'd definitely been easy enough to defend against. Even if he hadn't had the ability to read minds, he was certain he could have fended off these weaklings. But now—

Now the half-demon's mind was a murderous smear of red, all of the thoughts chaotic and shrill and screaming to kill, kill, _kill_, and there was nothing nice and clear to follow, nothing obvious to dodge. Naraku had not mentioned this as a possibility.

"Inuyasha?" the little girl was calling out, her voice as tremulous and fearful as her thoughts sounded to Goshinki. "Are you still in there?"

Still, the half-demon didn't respond. Instead, he launched himself into the air.

The first strike tore through Goshinki's knee, severing his leg halfway down and flinging his clawed foot into the road. Miroku barely managed to dodge it, and the close call made him turn horrified eyes on his best friend. The demons were fighting, moving in a complicated dance that the humans had trouble following with their eyes.

"What do we do?" Kagome asked, hobbling over and helping Miroku to his feet. She let the man lean on her shoulder, and the two watched as Inuyasha grabbed the demon by its tail and tore it out, the bone sliding from the flesh with a spray of blood that left Kagome's stomach reeling. She fought the urge to throw up. "Do we help?"

"Possessed or not, he still seems to be on our side," Miroku commented, looking down at his gun. It was still in his hand, but the metal was badly scratched. "You got a plan?"

"No," Kagome admitted, "but if there was ever a time to act… Even if he can read minds, Inuyasha's distracting him. Maybe if we just do something unexpected without thinking about it?"

"Like what?"

The girl shrugged, rolled up her sleeves, and marched into the fight, leaving Miroku trying to keep his balance without her to use as a crutch. She dodged Goshinki's flailing limbs and nearly took one of Inuyasha's fists to her face, but she reached out and grabbed onto the giant demon's ankle with both hands and something that sounded almost like a war cry. With everything in her, she begged her body to let her help, _somehow_.

Like before, Kagome felt a warmth start at her core and spread to her fingertips.

Goshinki fell to his one remaining knee, his ankle black and smoking where she'd been touching. His amputated leg spurted blood, and Kagome quickly backpedaled to avoid being drenched. She bumped into a lean, solid chest, and when she looked up, she was staring into Inuyasha's distorted face. He lifted his hands to her shoulders and clasped them tightly, his claws digging into her skin until she had to smother a gasp of pain.

"Inuyasha?" she whispered.

He gave her one last squeeze before he shoved her roughly to the concrete, stepped over her prone body, and lunged toward the half-defeated Goshinki. This time, his claws tore the demon's throat, severing the assassin's head. As the massive body collapsed against the ground, Inuyasha stood in its midst, covered in blood and breathing heavily. Kagome reached out one hand, wondering just how smart it would be to touch him when he was like that.

Before anything _could_ happen, Miroku pistol-whipped the half-demon in the back of the head. Inuyasha fell to his knees, dazed, his eyes already fading back to gold. And then he collapsed.

* * *

><p>Inuyasha came to nearly an hour later. He woke slowly, his head pounding and his blood feeling hot in his veins. When he cracked his eyes open, he saw that it was still daytime. Stretched out beside him was Sango, her head carefully bandaged, still fast asleep. All their things—whatever could be rescued from the car crash—were piled nearby. In the distance, he could see Kagome and Miroku leaning against one another in the middle of an earnest conversation.<p>

The half-demon sat up and put a clawed hand to his forehead, noticing that he didn't seem injured even though his clothes were a mess. His thoughts were sluggish, too, and he felt almost like he was suffering from a very bad hangover.

"Kagome?" he called out, his voice hoarse. He watched as her shoulders stiffened, and it was nearly a full minute before she turned around to look at him. "Are you okay?" he asked, noting with discomfort the state she was in. In addition to her bruised throat, she now sported a cut cheek, skinned palms and knees, bloody shoulders, and a raw patch along her forearm. Miroku hardly looked any better.

"Yeah," she answered, approaching slowly, her eyes sweeping over him as if assessing something. "I'm going to be fine. How are you?"

"Think I hit my head," he mumbled. "What happened to the demon?"

"Dead," Miroku said, his voice wary. "It was a, uh, team effort."

An uncomfortable silence descended on the group until Kagome shook herself and crouched down beside Inuyasha. She slipped her hands over his cheeks and positioned his head until their eyes met. "Remember that thing I told you?" she asked slowly.

"What thing?"

"The 'I love you' thing," she clarified, leaning forward to press her lips to his forehead. They lingered there for a long time until her warmth had a chance to seep into his skin. When she pulled away, her expression was much softer, much more relaxed, as though she had just come to terms with something. "That still holds," she promised. "Right now, tomorrow, and the day after that, no matter what."

"We'll fill you in," Miroku promised from over her shoulder. "For now, I think we need to deal with this mess. We need a car, a hospital visit, some supplies…"

Inuyasha, still somewhat bewildered, asked, "You're going to call Sesshoumaru, aren't you?"

"This is another one of those times where I just don't think we have a choice," the hunter answered, already pulling out his cell phone. "At least he still gets our phone calls."

"Yeah," Inuyasha muttered darkly. "Thank goodness we're so lucky."


	16. Alated

I apologize, guys. This chapter took me a week longer than I expected, but I'll save my excuses!

_Opacity _has been nominated for a third award at Born For Each Other (link in my profile): Best Drama. Please check out all the nominees and cast a vote for your favorite!

**alated** – _adjective_ – having wings; winged

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Opacity<p>

Alated

* * *

><p>For a person who was only tagging along for the ride, Sango thought she received far too many injuries. This latest adventure had ended with her in the hospital for two days. Even now, five days after her release, her head wouldn't stop hurting. On the bright side, she'd noticed that Kagome, Miroku, and even Inuyasha were all treating her like a princess. This was a double-edged sword. Part of her—the part that remembered she was a strong, independent, capable young woman—reminded her that she didn't need anyone to take care of her. The other part <em>really <em>liked being waited on hand and foot.

"Can I get you anything?" Kagome asked as they pulled up to a gas station in their brand new Hummer and the men got out. Personally, Sango was disgusted by the gas-guzzling vehicle, but she had to admit—if they were going to get flipped over by another giant demon, she'd rather be in a Hummer than a regular SUV. It had been the biggest car they could find. Plus, Sesshoumaru was the one footing the bill.

"An energy drink?" Sango requested. When Kagome put on her mom-slash-nurse face, the one that meant the girl was about to deliver a lecture on the dangers of energy drinks, Sango batted her eyelashes at her best friend. "Please? The sugar really helps with the headache…"

Kagome narrowed her eyes but gave in with only a small frown. "Okay…" she said slowly. Then she glanced at the front of the store and watched Miroku and Inuyasha through the window. The men were already standing in line at the counter, talking animatedly about something. Sango noticed how a thoughtful look stole across Kagome's face.

As a naturally wary person, Sango noticed things that other people probably didn't. For example, she'd noticed the dark, concerned looks that Kagome and Miroku had been sharing with one another ever since the run-in with Goshinki. She'd also noticed how both were constantly watching Inuyasha as though the half-demon was about to sprout wings and fly. Meanwhile, Inuyasha was totally oblivious to their concern.

Something had happened, but Miroku and Kagome were being awfully tight-lipped about it.

Sango had also watched over the past several months as Kagome's interest in the half-demon had grown from mild curiosity to a crush to infatuation to being full-blown, head-over-heels in love. It was something she'd never seen in Kagome before. Even when the girl had been dating Kouga, their relationship had been lukewarm at best. The two had acted more like friends even at the peak of their so-called romance.

She'd known it from the very moment Kagome had brought the hunters home, all those months ago. Even back then, the girl looked at Inuyasha with eyes that had a sparkle in them, a look that Sango recognized even if she couldn't relate.

"Anything to eat?" Kagome asked now, resolutely turning her back on the hunters. Sango thought about asking what was up but decided against it.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry."

"I'll get you a sandwich," the other woman decided, completely discarding Sango's answer.

"…Fine," the brunette agreed. "How about some candy? No, wait! Beef jerky?"

There it was again, the mom-slash-nurse face. It didn't last long, though. "Okay, but we'll share a small bag," Kagome said reluctantly.

"Love you!" Sango shouted after Kagome as the girl ducked out of the Hummer.

The door shut, leaving Sango alone in the car. She watched Kagome walk into the store, sidle up to Inuyasha, and 'accidentally' bump into the man. The two then shared a goofy look that made something deep inside Sango, a piece of her that she didn't even want to acknowledge, _ache_.

Quickly, Sango shook her head, dismissing these thoughts. It _had _to be the head injury! Never in her entire life had she wanted something like what Inuyasha and Kagome had.

As if sensing all this, Miroku suddenly turned away from the counter and looked at her through the store's window and the Hummer's windshield. He smiled—this slow, charming smile that started at one corner of his mouth and spread to the other—and winked, waving around an enormous bag of beef jerky behind Kagome's back.

'All for you,' he mouthed with a goofy grin.

Biting back an uncharacteristic giggle, Sango waggled her fingers at him. _If only_, she caught herself thinking. Then she forcefully put a stop to that line of thought.

If only _what_?

If only Miroku were as much of a gentleman as his posh vocabulary made him seem? If only he kept his hands to himself, didn't peek at her in the shower, didn't make lewd comments or jokes in his furiously charming voice? Then he wouldn't be who he was. There were many things Sango had learned in her life, and one of the most important was to never wish for someone to change who they were because they never would.

Miroku was Miroku. Sango was Sango. Somehow, that would have to be enough.

But enough for what?

A pseudo-family to hang out with on the road? She couldn't just replace her dead parents with a couple of well-meaning but entirely dangerous hunters. Because they _were _dangerous, and Sango knew she and Kagome needed to stop fooling themselves into thinking this was all some kind of grand adventure. Inuyasha was half _demon_, and Miroku…

Well, Miroku was charming.

You know, dangerously charming.

And he really needed to stop staring at her in such a silly way whenever she took down a demon with Hiraikotsu or hit the bull's-eye during target practice. She liked the admiration and respect, but she wasn't sure how she felt about the guy getting _turned on _by her violence. Or maybe he just appreciated her strength and sense of justice?

Again, Sango shook her head as if that would be enough to send these unwanted ideas and feelings out the window.

"Head injury," she muttered darkly, putting the tips of her fingers to her temples and massaging the headache away. "And being stuck in a small, enclosed space with the man for _months_."

Before she could continue with this inner monologue, the front passenger door was yanked open, and Miroku slid into the seat. "Quick!" he said, tossing her the bag of jerky. "Before the health nut comes back."

"Kagome's just trying to be helpful," Sango defended her best friend, but it was half-hearted. "Thanks, though. This was… really nice of you."

"I'm always nice," the hunter reminded her with a casual eyebrow waggle, hinting at a deeper meaning to his words.

"You're certainly something," the brunette muttered vaguely as she tore open the bag and grabbed a strip of dried meat. They only had a few minutes before the couple joined them, so she had to stuff her face while she still had the freedom to do so.

"You sound thoughtful, my dear," Miroku said, leaning his cheek against the headrest as he studied her with those damnably velvet eyes. "Anything important on your mind?"

To keep from blurting something about her confusing and pretty much unwelcome feelings for him—not that Sango was the blurting type—she asked instead, "What happened to Inuyasha?"

Miroku answered without hesitating, but his voice was guarded. "What happened when?"

"During the last fight, after I was knocked out."

"What makes you think something happened?" the man asked carefully, now avoiding her eyes. A small part of her felt victorious by the idea that her gaze could affect him, too.

"Probably because you and Kagome have been tip-toeing around him for days and you keep doing that weird silent communication thing that I see you and Inuyasha doing all the time, like you're talking to each other without any words. I'm many things but stupid is not one of them."

When Miroku answered several seconds later, his voice was at least sincere. "I would never question your intelligence."

_Good_, Sango thought smugly. "So, what's up?"

Unfortunately, even if Miroku was going to tell her about the latest drama in the group, the Hummer's doors opened and the other two piled in.

"What'd I miss?" Kagome asked nosily as she handed over Sango's requested energy drink. She made her displeasure known by pulling a face at her best friend as if saying, _Hey, it's your funeral_. In response, Sango made a big show of cracking the drink open, taking a huge gulp, and sighing happily afterward. Kagome's frown deepened, and Miroku laughed when Sango sent him a mischievous wink.

"Nothing much," she finally answered Kagome's question. "We were just talking about what to do next."

"We're _always _talking about what to do next," the girl muttered with a dramatic roll of her blue-gray eyes. "And what can we do? I mean, Naraku's lackeys keep finding _us_, we're not allowed to go after Kagura—who might actually be our ally now—and we have no idea where to start looking for Naraku."

Of the four of them, Sango was having the hardest time reconciling with the idea that Kagura might actually be (mostly) innocent. This was hard to imagine since Kagome had more ties to the town the demoness destroyed; after all, Kagome had grown up there while Sango had only been around for a few years during college. Still, even if Sango hadn't known as many people, just the idea of the _slaughter _that had happened turned her stomach. None of those people had deserved it.

It would take a long time before she could successfully transfer the blame and hatred she'd been feeling from Kagura to Naraku, but Sango was trying to get it done. If there was a critical moment during a fight where she needed to trust Kagura or summon enough anger to go after Naraku, she needed to sort these feelings out _now_ or else they would all be in trouble.

"Am I the only one who might be worried that Sesshoumaru's opinion might be skewed considering he's screwing Kagura?" Sango piped up. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when Inuyasha made an angry noise and punched the steering wheel.

"We made it five days—_five _days—without anyone saying it," he snapped in the grumpiest (most petulant?) voice Sango had ever heard. "Shit, now I'm going to have nightmares."

"What?" Kagome asked with a playful smile that warned Sango she was about to tease the half-demon in a way that made the brunette worried since they were trapped in a small space with him. "Does picturing Sesshoumaru naked, sweaty, _moaning—?"_

"Finish that sentence, and you're walking," Inuyasha cut her off, jabbing a clawed finger in Kagome's direction as she erupted into uncontrollable giggles. Even Sango couldn't stop a laugh from escaping her lips.

She hated to admit it, but it was _quite _the mental picture.

The half-demon finally started the Hummer's engine and pulled out of their parking space. The gang was back on the road, which seemed to be where they ended up no matter what. Sango settled into the backseat and made sure her seatbelt was secure. They were all lucky that none of them had been injured more severely, and that they weren't too afraid to drive after their second accident in as many months. (Remember the spiderhead incident?)

Whenever Sango was sure Kagome wasn't watching, she slipped a piece of jerky from the bag Miroku had bought into her mouth, chewing as discreetly as possible. At one point, she looked up and found Inuyasha watching her from the rearview mirror. His eyes were almost amused. There was no fooling his nose.

"So…" the brunette prodded, glancing again at her three companions. "Our destination?"

"To check out some weird deaths in another town," Miroku answered, pulling a folded-up newspaper article from one of his pockets. He handed it over, and Sango's eyes skimmed the headline.

_Bodies fall from sky: Police baffled by evidence_

"So, this sounds… pleasant," Sango muttered, running her finger along the words as she gleaned as many details as she could without actually reading the article. "Seven dead 'as far as they can tell.' What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, they're only finding severed limbs, which apparently makes it difficult to identify how many people have been murdered. The police seem fairly certain the limbs are from seven different victims," Miroku explained as he took the newspaper clipping back. "Whether seven or seventeen people have died, this still sounds like our kind of thing."

"Well, body parts _are _falling from the sky," Kagome commented. "That's not exactly something normal serial killers are capable of, right?"

"Right," Miroku agreed. "The limbs are appearing on rooftops and in tree branches all over town. My guess is a flying demon or a dragon."

"Dragons don't exist," Inuyasha grumbled from the front seat. He checked the GPS—on which Miroku had brought up directions to the town—and guided the Hummer off the highway as directed.

"What, like _werewolves_ don't exist?" Miroku teased his best friend. When Inuyasha's fist connected with the other hunter's shoulder, the women flinched at the loud sound it made. There would most definitely be a bruise there.

"Those stupid things were _extinct, _and it was a fluke that we came across one," the half-demon snapped defensively. "The next person to bring it up will find my fist in their face."

"Even if it's me?" Kagome asked, a knowing smile on her face.

It took him a longer time to answer than she liked, but he seemed to wilt a little in the driver's seat. "Don't test me," he finally warned, but there was no real threat in his voice. "The real question is, where are we eating dinner?"

"No more diners!" Sango answered immediately. She and Kagome shared a look, both thinking about the sheer amount of greasy meals and bad coffee and mother-loving _pancakes _they had consumed in the past few months. It was a miracle that they hadn't doubled in size. At least almost dying all the time meant they got some exercise.

"Yeah, how about we go to a nice restaurant for once?" Kagome suggested excitedly. "One where I get to wear something other than jeans and a pair of boots—somewhere we have an excuse to put on some makeup."

"You always wear makeup," Inuyasha pointed out bemusedly. This time, the men shared a look. Neither one understood what wearing lip gloss had to do with hunting demons, but the women both managed to carry around an extra tube of it everywhere they went. (Okay, so Sango used chapstick instead of lip gloss, but they were similar enough.)

Quickly, Kagome shook her head with a frown. "That doesn't count. No one gets to see us! Other than monsters and dead people, I mean."

"I hate to say it, but I'm with the girls on this one," Miroku said, glancing into the backseat at Sango. He held her gaze for several long seconds, and she realized he was trying to tell her something. What that was, she wasn't sure. They hadn't formed the bond that allowed the same kind of silent communication that they used with their best friends.

Most of their communication was, in fact, miscommunication.

"Fine, whatever," the half-demon gave in. "I guess we can stop by a motel—"

"Hotel," Kagome corrected.

"—and get ready there," Inuyasha finished in a peeved tone. "Okay, that's it, what are we celebrating?"

"Nothing. I just feel like we deserve a good meal followed by a good night's sleep," his girlfriend answered honestly. "I mean, we've been through a lot lately, you know? And this next hunt doesn't exactly sound like a piece of cake, either. If you really need a reason to celebrate," Kagome added with a devious grin at her best friend. Sango, not knowing what was about to happen, stared back at her with bemused eyes. "Sango's birthday is next week."

"What?" Inuyasha and Miroku demanded simultaneously, both looking over their shoulders at the girl. Since Inuyasha was driving, this wasn't exactly a great idea. The half-demon quickly faced forward again and moved the Hummer safely back into their lane. Several passing cars honked at them, and one grumpy old man actually leaned on his horn for half a minute.

Sango's eyes narrowed, and she counted out the days on her fingers. "I can't believe I forgot. I haven't really thought about it."

Kagome shook her head, unable to keep a smile from her face. Sango was a lot of things—_a lot _of things, including too guarded, too serious, and too protective—but she wasn't selfish or self-centered. In fact, this was why Kagome had wanted so badly to become her friend back in college. Sango was so solitary, but Kagome had battered that barrier with cheerful friendliness until she broke through.

"Mama gave me your gift way back when we were in town," Kagome confided, jerking a thumb toward the backseat where their luggage was piled. "I double-checked it while you were in the hospital to make sure it didn't break in the accident. Kohaku and Souta gave me some cards, too. Handmade."

"Cheapskates," Sango said affectionately with a grin. Then, in an almost-troubled voice, she asked, "You think I should be worried that I forgot my own birthday?"

"We've all had a lot on our minds," Kagome remarked, waving her hand around as if that alone could dismiss her best friend's thoughts. "I mean, it's not like we're sticking to any kind of schedule either."

"Hey, uh, Kagome…" Inuyasha muttered up front. He glanced in the rearview mirror and found Kagome's eyes in the reflection. "I didn't miss your birthday, right? I mean, if I didn't know…"

"You're safe," Kagome promised with a light-hearted laugh. "It's not until summertime."

The half-demon let out an obvious sigh of relief. After a beat, his shoulders slumped. "I hate to shit on your parade—"

"_Rain_," Kagome corrected quickly, aghast. "The expression is 'rain on your parade.' Jeeze, you're so crass sometimes."

"No one says 'crass' anymore, Kagome," Sango commented.

"Okay, well, I hate to, you know, rain or whatever, but Miroku and I… we're not the fancy restaurant types."

"Well, I am," Miroku countered. "Or, I suppose I would like to be. Unfortunately, I—_we_—don't have the clothes for it. I think you're on your own."

"I'd suggest a girls' night, but I did promise we wouldn't split up anymore," Kagome said. She caught Inuyasha's eyes in the rearview mirror, and the hunter actually grinned at her.

"Look who's learning!"

"Oh, shut up," she snapped back affectionately. After only a few seconds, her entire face lit up, and Sango knew she'd come up with a solution. "Your dress-up clothes!"

"Our… what?" Miroku asked, astonished. Then it hit him. "You mean our suits from when we pretend to be government agents."

"Exactly! Okay, Sango, what do you feel like eating, birthday girl?"

* * *

><p>Sango patted her lips with a napkin before learning back in her chair, completely satisfied. Around her, there were a lot of rattling dishes and the delicate <em>ting!<em> of silverware hitting plates. Across from her, Kagome was stealing a piece of food off Inuyasha's plate while the half-demon tried to fight her off with his fork. Miroku looked on with a vague smile on his face.

The 'town' had turned out to be more like a city, so the group had tracked down a decent hotel to use as home-base as Sango found an expensive local restaurant. She wasn't sure how they'd done it, but the moment she'd announced her pick to the group, the hunters had gotten all four of them in without a reservation. It probably involved some sort of trickery—fake IDs or throwing Sesshoumaru's name around—but Sango decided to not let it bother her.

The lights were low, Kagome and Sango had dressed up as promised, and the hunters actually cleaned up well. The slacks, dress shirts, and ties from their games of 'dress-up' really did look nice on them. It was probably one of the few things the men ever spent any money on.

With one last gulp, Sango drained her wine glass and set it back on the table. Miroku caught her eye, and his smile widened.

"How was your steak?"

"Pretty sure it was the best thing I've ever eaten," Sango confided. "If I was wearing jeans, I'd undo the top button."

"Lovely," Miroku commented, looking as if he was smothering laughter. "Really, that was such a ladylike thing to say."

"I am the _pinnacle _of ladylike behavior."

In the two seconds of silence that followed, Sango watched as his eyes warmed up in that way only his seemed to do. There were even faint crinkles at the corners of his eyes, brought on by an honest-to-god smile. He'd have laugh lines when he got older. "You look beautiful tonight."

Really, Sango couldn't help it. She smiled embarrassedly back at him and tucked some of her loose hair behind an ear. "Thanks," she answered awkwardly, acutely aware of the fact that Kagome accepted compliments so much more smoothly than she did. "I just… I just happened to have this," she muttered, gesturing at her dress. It hadn't taken up much room in their luggage, which was probably the only reason why she'd packed it.

"It looks great," Miroku insisted, not willing to let her brush his comment aside. He could be stubborn, too.

And then there it was—that look again, the one he'd been giving her more and more lately. Except this time, it was accompanied by the hunter reaching out a hand and placing it very gently on the back of her own. Sango watched its progress with wide eyes, but the moment skin connected with skin, she jerked her hand away and shot to her feet. Miroku stared up at her, startled.

"I'm going to the restroom," the brunette announced, hoping the dim restaurant lighting hid the blush she just knew was staining her cheeks. At the moment, she felt like her body was betraying her. "I—I'll be right back."

Behind her, she heard Kagome ask, "What did you do?"

"I don't know!" Miroku defended himself honestly, sounding almost—

_Hurt_.

Feeling guilty and confused and not really understanding why, Sango walked right past the hallway that led to the restrooms and instead went out the doors. Without her coat, the air was bitterly cold, but the chill soothed her warm cheeks.

And, okay, so Miroku was handsome and charming and brave, but he was still a hunter and, really, feelings had absolutely no place in a life where they spent all their time _killing _things. Except, Kagome had seemed awfully happy since things had fallen into place with Inuyasha, and even the half-demon was less surly lately. Then again, what if the only thing she liked about Miroku was that he was close —?

Her thoughts were interrupted as something brushed by her, creating a strong enough breeze that Sango actually stumbled. She saw a shadow on the ground beneath a street lamp before it disappeared into another shadow at the foot of a nearby building. Quickly, Sango looked around and noticed that for once she was not alone. There were at least half a dozen (normal) people within sight, which was weird since up until then, no one was ever around during supernatural fights.

Whatever it was circled around again, and Sango watched—more curious than afraid—as a very large creature swooped down low over a couple. It wasn't until it clamped a pair of very large, clawed talons onto the man's shoulders that she made a run for it.

Because a monster was kidnapping a man.

Right out in public.

And everyone else was too busy screaming to help the poor guy.

Sango dodged around an old woman and reached for the man's ankles, snagging them before the thing could carry him away.

"Hold on!" she shouted. The man just yelled down at her, looking terrified and about ready to cry.

Unsure of what else to do—Sango hadn't exactly hidden Hiraikotsu under her dress—she took off one of her shoes and threw it at what she assumed was the monster's head. It bounced off harmlessly, but the attack caught the creature's attention. With another scream, the man was dropped.

On top of Sango.

She collided with the ground, jostling her still tender head wound, putting a run in her stockings, and tearing open her shin. Before she could climb back to her feet, she felt the talons circle her upper arms; the brunette was then hoisted into the air. She clawed desperately at the scaly feet, but they wouldn't let go. Within seconds, they were soaring through the decorative treetops, and Sango felt the leaves on a passing branch tangle in her hair. No one tried to rescue her, and she couldn't help but feel a little bitter about it.

"Let me go!" she yelled, contorting her body until she could reach her one remaining shoe. She threw it at the monster but missed.

They flew past a business building, and the lights illuminated her captor. Sango bit back a startled gasp. She couldn't see much from her angle dangling below the monster, but she could make out a very large set of wings. Either the city was infested with giant birds, or she'd stumbled across their hunt without meaning to. One thing was certain—it was definitely not a dragon.

Thankfully, she didn't have much time to freak out because they'd reached their destination. With one last surge of its wings, the monster soared over the top of a skyscraper mid-construction and deposited Sango into what could only be a nest. It was made of a mess of things that she didn't want to look too closely at (Was that a severed hand?), but she could make out a lot of feathers wedged in amongst branches. There were large, shadowed lumps that she noticed were breathing. There had to be at least six more of the things. A flock of demon birds.

Sango fished her cell phone out from where she'd stashed it in her belt. By some luck, it hadn't fallen out during her flight. She pressed a button and held it up. The screen lit up her captor.

This time, Sango really did scream.

Quickly, however, she slapped a hand over her mouth to smother the sound.

The thing was three times her size, a big bird body with wings and talons. Bulbous eyes and a huge mouth filled with jagged teeth stretched across the front. The worst part was that a human-like body jutted out from the top with another set of talons for hands and a naked, blue torso. As far as Sango could tell, judging by its silhouette and long hair, the one who had grabbed her was female.

It hissed down at her and gnashed its teeth—both sets of them.

All of this lasted the ten seconds it took for her phone's screen to go black. Once again, she couldn't see much of anything by the light of the stars, and she was almost thankful for it.

So… seven bird creatures versus an unarmed Sango in a _dress_.

The monster growled at her again, and the brunette nailed it in the forehead with her cell phone. The object connected with a cracking sound that left Sango feeling satisfied. The feeling was fleeting.

"Come on, just try to tear me apart," she challenged the creature, and her voice was surprisingly steady and confident. "Let's see how far you get."

Challenge accepted, the demon swiped at her. Sango leaned back just in time, but she felt the claw whistle by her cheek. Although the attack didn't connect, she knew she might not be so lucky the next time. Her mind sorted through her options, but she knew she didn't have many. She could lead the monster to the edge of the nest and give it a good shove, but the thing had _wings_, didn't it? And what if the other six woke up?

Still, that didn't mean she had to give up.

The demon took a lumbering step forward, and Sango scrambled to find something in the nest to use as a weapon. Her fingers wrapped around a decent-sized branch, but it was wedged in tight. Putting her weight into it, Sango managed to prize it loose. It felt heavy in her hands.

"Go to hell!" she shouted, taking a swing. The first missed, but the second collided with a wing. She could hear and feel a bone snap, which reminded her that birds' bones were lightweight. The same had to be true for their demon counterparts. The third and fourth swings connected and broke more bones, but she missed the fifth.

In her adrenaline rush, Sango had swung too hard, and her own momentum dragged her down when she missed. This exposed her back, and the creature sliced into her shoulder before she could dodge.

Without meaning to, she cried out. A stream of blood slid down her arm and splattered the nest. She rolled onto her back, struggling to catch her breath. The branch was gone. She'd dropped it. A shadow loomed over her, oddly shaped but recognizable as the demon, and blocked out the star-filled sky.

Hey, at least she had a view. If she'd died down in the streets on any of the previous occasions her life had been in danger, Sango wouldn't have been able to see the stars.

A little less enthusiastically than before, Sango's hand felt around the nest. There wasn't another branch handy, but her fingers closed around something small, metal, and sharp. Were demon birds attracted to shiny things? Did they decorate their nests like magpies? With a growling cry that almost didn't sound human, Sango lunged for the monster and slashed the face on the front of its body. She took out an eye, maybe two, and they parted, both breathing hard and loud. And they were both bloody now.

"What, you don't talk?" Sango asked deliriously, forcing the words around her ragged breathing. "The other demons talked." The creature snarled and growled but didn't say anything back. "God, I kind of feel lonely," she muttered out loud, seeing the other shadowy lumps shifting. They were waking up. "I'm going to die in a nest alone, a week before my birthday, at the top of a freaking skyscraper in a _dress._"

Except, Sango wasn't alone.

A roar shook the very air, and Sango stumbled back against the edge of the nest as something barreled into the demon bird in front of her. Although she couldn't figure out how, there was suddenly fire everywhere. The other demons were definitely awake now, and all seven of them attacked something in the middle of the nest.

In the light of the fire, Sango could just make out something big and white moving fast. There was a spray of blood, and two bodies toppled out of the nest. They probably fell to the street, startling dozens of people. Sango imagined she could hear screams even twenty stories up.

One of the birds knocked the newcomer across the nest, and something furry collided with Sango. They fell in a heap, and she scrambled to her feet. It clearly wasn't human. If nothing else it was—

A really, really big cat. That was _on fire._

The new demon struggled to its own feet and shook its head, much like Kagome's housecat after accidently running into a wall. It looked like a cross between a saber tooth tiger and one of those Pokémon things from that television show Kohaku had watched when he was little. The number of tails alone…

Unsure of what to say, Sango mumbled, "Uh, thanks."

The cat made a rumbling noise deep in its throat before launching back into the fray. The flames were everywhere now, and Sango started to look for an escape. The building was mostly metal and girders, and she couldn't exactly jump twenty stories to the street. Steeling her nerves, she hopped over the edge of the nest and dropped down to an old catwalk left behind by construction workers.

That high up, the wind was stronger than at street level. Sango wobbled and took it slowly, inching her way toward what she hoped to be the first of many ladders that led to the ground. Behind her, she could feel the flames on her back. The fire that the cat creature had brought with it was spreading fast, and she could barely hear the death cries anymore over the roar of the flames.

Probably because things were actually looking up, Sango's luck failed. One of the still-living bird demons broke away from the nest and dove for her, its wing hitting her in the small of her back. She wind-milled her arms but lost her balance anyway.

The feeling of weightlessness as she plummeted twenty stories forced her stomach into her throat. The wind, so cold now, whistled past her ears as she grappled for something—anything—to grab onto. But the impact felt a whole lot softer (not to mention warmer and furrier) than she imagined. Sango found herself slung over the back of the cat, which was now _flying _through the air with flames dancing around its feet and the tips of its tails.

There were two bird demons following close behind, and she could see the flaming nest in the distance on the horizon. This absurd chase descended to the streets as the three demons whooshed past cars and storefronts. They were moving too quickly for Sango to see the faces of bystanders, but she thought she recognized the route they were taking. They were nearing the restaurant where less than ten minutes ago, she'd been sitting inside with her friends.

Those friends were now standing out front on the sidewalk. Sango imagined she saw the gaping look on Kagome's face as they flew past, but really it was all a blur. Inuyasha's enraged shout as he gave chase, however…

"Sango!"

Ah, and that was Miroku. He sounded concerned enough that Sango—despite the situation—felt her heart give a little pitter-patter that reminded her that all this had happened because he'd tried to hold her hand. Well, maybe that was placing too much blame on him. It wasn't the hunter's _entire _fault.

"Get the birds!" she screamed, aware that they might go after the cat as well. "The BIRDS!"

When she glanced to her left, she found one of the bird demons flying level beside her and the demon cat. Before she could even open her mouth, it was pulled from the sky in a flurry of feathers.

"One down!" Inuyasha yelled triumphantly, plunging one fist deep into an eye. The way blood squirted across his dress shirt didn't even begin to faze the half-demon.

The cat circled around again, dropping to the ground so lightly that Sango wasn't even jostled. Miroku and Kagome helped her to the ground, and she leaned into the hunter's chest briefly before gathering her wits and shoving away. Now was not the time.

Really, it had to be the head injury.

"New friend?" Kagome asked, staring into the face of the cat demon with wide eyes. She reached out a trembling hand—looking a bit dazed—and brushed her fingertips across the soft fur on its forehead. The cat closed its eyes and rumbled again. Sango realized it was purring.

"I think so?" Her voice rose at the end, indicating how unsure she was about this statement. "It saved me from the bird demons."

"Birds of Paradise," Miroku corrected her, waving a hand at the last one. Inuyasha was leaping after it, jumping from the top of a car to the overhang of a restaurant. He launched himself toward the demon and latched onto a wing; they both fell to the ground and rolled through the street. An oncoming car barely missed them.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, starting forward.

The hunter snagged her elbow, and he actually had a reassuring smile on his face. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. They're very weak. We've run into them a few times before. I'm surprised I didn't guess this was what we would be facing."

"Way to drop the ball," Sango muttered unfairly. Now that the adrenaline was draining, her throbbing head, shin, and shoulder blade were becoming harder and harder to ignore. "I got snatched outside the restaurant."

"Why were you out here anyway?" Kagome asked, cautiously watching Inuyasha as he wrestled the demon. Still, she stayed put.

"Yeah, Sango, why were you out here?" Miroku echoed, his voice knowing—and maybe even amused.

"I needed some fresh air," Sango said vaguely, turning her attention back to the cat demon. The thing was now sitting on its haunches, looking for all the world like a docile pet. A massive one, but innocent nonetheless. "This guy here saved me from the nest."

There was a pause following her abrupt change in topics, but Miroku let the subject drop. He had a twinkle in his eye that suggested Sango would have to have a discussion with him later. "First of all, this _guy _is a girl. Second, cat demons are the natural enemies of any kind of bird demon."

"Go figure," Kagome joked, again reaching out to pat the demon on the head. Her hand stopped short, though. "She's safe, right?"

"Normally benevolent and very strong, very loyal," Miroku confirmed.

That seemed to be enough to satisfy Kagome. She ruffled the cat's fur and then tweaked an ear. "Can we keep her?"

"We can't exactly leave her roaming the city," the hunter said, his voice troubled. In the distance, Inuyasha drove his elbow into the last Bird of Paradise. Momentarily dazed, the demon was distracted enough for the half-demon to snap its neck. Triumphant, Inuyasha pumped a fist into the air with a grin.

"Good job, honey!" Kagome called out to him. There were police sirens in the distance. "What've got, what, three minutes?"

"More like two," Miroku muttered, glancing around for the Hummer. It was parked nearby. He started to herd the women and the cat toward their vehicle. "Get a move on, Inuyasha!"

"Coming, coming," the half-demon muttered, running toward them at a jog. He pulled out his cell phone—which he'd kept even though he could only call Sango and Sesshoumaru, and no one could call him—and dialed his half-brother. "We gotta get a clean-up crew here, fast."

"Seven demons," Sango said and then pointed to the sky. They all turned toward the flaming nest twenty stories up. "And _that_."

"No longer our problem," Inuyasha answered. He glanced at the cat demon, temporarily forgetting about the cell phone pressed to his ear. "Who's this?"

"Sango's new pet," Kagome explained with a grin.

"She's not my—" The brunette broke off as the demon rubbed its massive head against her side, forcing her back a step and then started to purr so loudly that Sango's whole body vibrated. "Okay, the Hummer's big, but not _this _big."

"Oh, she's got a more compact form," Miroku assured her. "Travel sized. At least, the last one we ran into did. Wait for it…"

Just as four police cars pulled up, sirens wailing, the demon cat was engulfed in a surge of fire as big as their car. When it receded, there was a kitten in the demon's place. Well, a kitten with two tails and a pair of massive canines. She peered up at Sango with wide, unblinking eyes and _mewed_.

Sango melted.

"God, she's cute," the brunette said, scooping the animal into her arms. She glanced back at the police cars and made a decision. "Alright, let's get out of here."

* * *

><p>Sango trailed a string through the dirt and watched as the demon cat pounced on it, tails swishing through the air. The cat rolled onto her back, legs churning the air as she tangled herself in the string with squeaking noises that made it easy to forget that she was actually a hulking beast capable of tearing apart giant bird demons.<p>

"What are you going to name her?"

Unsurprised that he'd followed her, Sango waited until Miroku sat down next to her in the hotel parking lot before answering. "Dunno yet. How… Do you think she belongs to someone?"

"She seems young,"Miroku answered softly, reaching out and petting the cat. She mewled and rubbed against his hand. "I'm thinking she was abandoned in the city. There aren't very many of them, and most belong to hunters. They're good companions. Strong—capable of fighting other demons."

"But not like Inuyasha, right? I mean, she's more like a pet than a person?" Sango clarified. "The wolf demons seemed so human, but she's…"

"More like an animal," the hunter confirmed. "I think it might be good for you to keep her. You've seemed lonely lately."

"I have not!" Sango countered immediately, defensively. She hesitated, her eyes still glued to her hands as she played with the kitten. "Maybe a little, I guess. It's just… When it comes to the Naraku situation, I'm an outsider. He didn't mess with my phone like he did yours. I'm not a practiced, trained hunter like you or part demon like Inuyasha or have spiritual powers like Kagome."

"A lot of hunters are normal humans." Then Miroku paused, took a deep breath, and once again reached for her hand. He moved slowly as if she was an animal that might bolt when startled. When his fingers wrapped around hers and she didn't pull away, Sango heard him let out the breath he'd been holding. "You're strong and you're brave, and now you have a cat demon. You make us stronger, not weaker, and you'll prove to Naraku that you're a threat when the time comes."

It might have been the head injury or maybe the fact that she was just so exhausted, but Sango weaved her fingers with his and finally turned to face him. When their eyes met, she didn't blink or flinch or turn away. She overcame her stubbornness and just enjoyed the way he was looking at her.

She'd figure it out in the morning.

For now, she just wanted to sit there and wait for the sun to rise.


	17. Special: A Day in the Life

It's a short one, guys, another "special" chapter. It does reveal a couple of important insights, though, and I really enjoyed writing it, so…

I promise to update with a normal, full-length chapter soon. :3

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha._

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Special: A Day in the Life of Sesshoumaru

* * *

><p>Sesshoumaru was a very important man, as the title 'Demon Lord' probably suggested. He did not—no matter what Inuyasha believed—spend all day, every day sitting behind a very large desk doing nothing. For the record, Sesshoumaru killed as many (if not more) demons than Inuyasha and his merry band of men. Well, band of man and women.<p>

Really, just _what _was his brother thinking? Not only did the half-demon need others to watch his back when a real man should be capable of watching his own, but they were all humans!

Granted, Miroku had been a good employee for the past several years. Actually, Miroku had been a much better employee than Inuyasha had ever been. The human hunter seemed far more intelligent and respectful than the half-demon. Also, granted, the women had so far proven to not be complete wastes. The little one—_Kagome_, Sesshoumaru thought, remembering with a sneer the way his brother said her name, as if it were a very precious word—had spiritual powers the likes of which he had not seen for decades. The other one seemed to have a backbone, but he knew little else of her. Once again, might he point out, she was only a human.

However, the point stood that Sesshoumaru was an extremely important man who did not have time to clean up Inuyasha's messes. Because, the demon lord was very sure, this whole Naraku fiasco _was _Inuyasha's fault. Somehow.

The only benefit to the entire experience was that it had brought back Kagura.

Not that Sesshoumaru felt anything for the demoness. In fact, she was nothing more than a nuisance. One that sucked up his time even worse than his legitimate human businesses did. Every time she appeared, Sesshoumaru had to spend _hours _of his busy day pleasuring—

Well, you get the idea.

And, also, the woman really needed to wear more clothing. Each time he saw her, the demon lord was fairly certain she was more scantily clad than the time before.

Shaking these entirely inappropriate thoughts from his head, Sesshoumaru parked his car on the side of the road and stepped out. He surveyed the land, noticing the stretch of trees, the newly constructed suburb far in the distance, and the vast empty space in-between. The area was isolated—and almost desolate because of the dead grass and small patches of snow. Everything was empty, and he could not hear or see any life around him. There were no birds or other animals, and he felt like the reason was because of the building he could just barely see rising out of the tree tops.

Ahead of him was the old asylum where Inuyasha and Miroku had first met Kagome, and where Kagome set terrible things in motion by destroying Naraku.

Sesshoumaru put the heel of his boot against the asylum's front door and, with only a little encouragement, broke it down. He waited for the cloud of dust to settle—like Inuyasha, his nose was far too sensitive—before he stepped inside. Even though it was the middle of the day, between the boarded-up windows and the tall trees surrounding the property, the entryway remained dark and gloomy.

Wrinkling his nose in disgust, the demon lord studied the building carefully. Although he knew it was empty now, the site was ripe for paranormal activity. The fine hairs along the back of his neck stood on end as if the air was electrified, and he very nearly raised his hackles. Realizing he was acting like a dog, he promptly stopped.

It may have been months, but he could still sense Naraku. Even before the… man… had turned into a demon, he'd been a very powerful spirit. An old, corrupted one at that.

Eyes already adjusted to the darkness, he stepped further into the bowels of the asylum. He passed the main office and some doors that lead to a veranda that wrapped around the building. The central staircase caught his eye; he saw dried blood and smelled a scent he recognized as Kagome's. She'd clearly been in a scuffle there. He also noticed footprints in the debris covering the floor, already filling with new dust, which could only be from the hunters' work boots.

This was ground zero, the place where it had all started.

"They should have known," Sesshoumaru muttered under his breath as he ran his fingers along the wall. Flakes of wallpaper fell to the floor behind him as he swept further into the asylum. The power radiating from the walls burned his fingertips and left an acrid taste in his mouth.

The spirit that had been there had been a twisted, dark thing that had been left to fester for too long. They were all paying the price now.

He hadn't informed Inuyasha and his little friends yet, but Sesshoumaru had been receiving reports—far more than he cared to admit—about demons and spirits terrorizing towns throughout his domain. There had been a few sightings of Naraku, but nothing concrete. The demon (and Sesshoumaru used that word loosely. _He _was a demon; Naraku was a gnat) had to be orchestrating the attacks from afar.

Sesshoumaru had lost nine hunters in the past month alone.

Sure, Kagura came around every so often, giving Sesshoumaru hints on where he needed to send his men to take out the worst of the monsters. But, still, the demon lord had no control over the demoness—she showed up when she wanted, told him what she could, and disappeared again far too quickly for his tastes. Then again, he didn't exactly like her unannounced visits either. There were so many things he needed to learn from her, but there was only so much Kagura could share without alerting Naraku.

Plus, well, Kagura was not the type of woman who showed her hand to anyone. She liked to play it close to the vest, keep things mysterious. Mostly, this only served to annoy Sesshoumaru.

A lot.

The man heaved a sigh as he rounded a corner, finding a caved-in wall that was covered with plant life that had crept in from the surrounding forest. Finally, there was sunlight again. Unfortunately, there was more to explore. He promptly turned around and started down a different hallway.

* * *

><p>When Sesshoumaru stepped out from the tree line, he was almost <em>happy <em>to see the bright, sunlit country road with his car parked perfectly on the shoulder. It was an expensive piece of machinery that still, somehow, didn't seem up to his standards.

He reached into the pocket of his trench coat and found his cell phone but didn't pull it out. It wouldn't work, anyway. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku still couldn't receive phone calls. The demon lord snorted—this wasn't exactly the most dastardly revenge plan, but it seemed to be doing what Naraku wanted. Coordinating their group had become cumbersome, and the lack of communication essentially cut the hunters off from their employer. Except…

There_ was _that Sango woman. Her phone was working, something Naraku had missed. (Sesshoumaru never would have made that mistake, of course.) And, naturally, he had the phone number of every one of his employees, even the worthless human ones.

It rang four times before a woman answered, her voice tentative. "…Hello?"

"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru answered in a bored tone, flicking a piece of lint off his sleeve.

"Excuse me?" Sango demanded, her voice sharper now. "I don't know who this is, but—"

"Sesshoumaru," the demon lord said this time, exasperated that the woman had not understood as easily as he had expected her to. "Put Inuyasha on the phone."

"Oh," she mumbled. "Right." She sounded almost stunned, but there was a current of anger under the surface that Sesshoumaru suspected was always there.

After several seconds of shuffling noises, his half-brother barked into the phone, "What?"

"Brother, I have news."

"Oh, jeeze… Oh, hey, Sesshoumaru, how are you? I'm doing great, thanks for asking. Really, my life's been fan-_fucking_-tastic lately. Besides the car crash and all the demons, it's like a freaking ray of sunsh—"

"Quiet," the demon sharply cut off his half-brother's sarcastic outburst. "Stop being such a child."

"Only when you stop being such a bitter, old man."

"I am hardly _old_."

"But you agree that you're bitter? And, hey, you've got the hair for it."

With a sigh, Sesshoumaru massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "We have the same hair."

There was a pause that indicated he'd once again outsmarted Inuyasha before his half-brother grumbled a half-hearted, "Bite me."

"Not today," Sesshoumaru quipped, unable to help himself. Really, Inuyasha was the only person in the entire universe who could ruin his composure and drain his patience so quickly. "Put Miroku on the phone."

"Why?"

"Because I refuse to speak to the _women_ about this, and your partner is the person I hate the least at the moment," the demon lord explained in what he felt was a controlled voice. (It wasn't.)

There were more shuffling sounds before a new voice took over the phone call. "Yes, Sesshoumaru?"

"I need you to listen very carefully—" A mewling noise cut the demon off, and he pulled his phone away from his ear to stare at it with something bordering on surprise. "And that was…?"

"Kirara."

"And who is Kirara?"

"The, uh, new member of our group," Miroku explained hastily. "She's a cat demon that Sango picked up—actually, Kirara is really the one who picked up Sango. They've bonded. You know, Inuyasha actually helped Sango pick out a name based on a story his mother used to tell him—"

"Stop talking," Sesshoumaru commanded. Not only was the man speaking way too much, but he'd mentioned that human woman his father had been bewitched by. "I investigated the asylum where you first encountered Naraku. I have discovered—"

And once again, the demon lord was cut off, this time by Kagome. "Oh, hey, so you're by my and Sango's old place, huh?"

"Am I on speakerphone?"

"Uhm, yeah?" Kagome answered.

"Listen, I need to—"

"Seriously, though, since you're not too far from our old apartment, can you check on Shippou? I worry about the little guy. I mean, I'm sure Kaede is taking great care of him, but he's an _orphan _and everything, so I was thinking that maybe I should take him under my wing or—"

"If it will get you to be quiet, I will agree to visit the boy," Sesshoumaru snapped, his voice even darker than usual. Now, he rubbed his temple with his free hand. This phone call had officially become the most annoying, exasperating, _painful_ part of his day, and he'd killed three demons that morning and investigated the birthplace of the worst monster he'd had to deal with for over a century. "Now, may I relate to you all what I have learned about Naraku?"

"Sure!" Kagome chirped, her voice upbeat, perky, and entirely too cheerful in all conceivable ways.

"No more interruptions?"

"No, of course not!" she answered promptly.

"Just tell us," Inuyasha demanded.

"You were not the last people to be in that building," Sesshoumaru revealed, his voice once again level and cold. "I discovered signs that Naraku had help escaping from hell."

"You mean Kagura, right?" Sango asked. "I mean, we already knew that."

"Not her," the demon lord muttered, unlocking his car door and sliding inside. He started the engine, ready to end the call as soon as he'd finally been able to say what he needed to say. "He had help from someone living. This may be more complicated than we first imagined."


	18. Legacy

Sorry, guys, I've barely found time to _sleep_ lately, let alone write. I'm so, so, so sorry for the delay! I also got lost about halfway through and had to do a major rewrite to get things back on track.

This chapter is mostly about important revelations and setting the scene for the next chapter or two. Next chapter will see the return of a requested character. (I swear, you guys, I read and remember your reviews and suggestions!)

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Legacy<p>

Opacity

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><p>The next morning dawned gray and dreary. A drizzly slush fell from the sky like it couldn't decide between rain and snow, and the resulting mush made the roads slick. Sango cruised along in the Hummer; it was one of the few times the men had let her drive. Kagome, her navigator, sat in the front seat with an atlas open in her lap.<p>

"Take the next left," the girl ordered, unnecessarily pointing at the upcoming exit.

With a nod, Sango did as asked.

In the backseat, the hunters were stretched out and snoring. For the last two weeks, they had spent every waking hour scouring books for a clue about what to do with Naraku. If someone really had helped Naraku escape hell, then they had a lot more enemies than they'd thought. Unfortunately, the boys couldn't find any instructions on how to send the demon back to hell or how to root out his accomplice(s).

It was after their sixth dead end that Inuyasha had announced, not very happily, that they needed to meet up with other hunters and ask around.

This idea had made the girls (in the boys' opinion) ridiculously excited.

"What do you think other hunters are like?" Kagome asked now, tracing their route with her finger. Their destination was circled with a red marker—a small town in the middle of nowhere that Inuyasha had had to mark himself since it didn't exist on any maps. It was allegedly the base camp for hunters in the area, most of whom worked for Sesshoumaru. From the little information Inuyasha and Miroku had shared, it consisted of a bar, a motel, and a free clinic for medical attention. There were a few houses where hunters' families lived, but that was rare. Most demon hunters died young, and many were afraid to get married or have children after everything they'd seen in their line of work.

Well, that, and a lot of them were grumpy and violent. Inuyasha had lucked out with his pretty face; a lot of the others weren't so fortunate.

"All men," Sango predicted with a frown.

"There's gotta be a couple of women," Kagome countered with a smile, glancing into the rearview mirror to get a look at _her _hunter. "I mean, we can't be the only two girls who aren't afraid of getting our hands a little dirty."

The brunette shrugged as she guided the vehicle around a curve. One side of the road was lined with tall, dark trees that made a shiver run down her spine. Until this whole hunting thing, she'd never thought about how ominous _everything _seemed. "I just hope they've got some info on Naraku or ideas on how to take him out," Sango said finally.

"Maybe they even know who else is in on this," Kagome suggested optimistically. She scratched the underside of Kirara's chin. The demon cat was curled up on the center console between the front seats. She hadn't transformed into her larger form since the first time, and Kagome had trouble remembering that Kirara was actually a vicious demon and not some housecat. "I don't really know what to expect when I see Naraku again," she added after a few seconds of silence.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the first time I saw him, he was just some creepy ghoul—sure, he was strong enough to smack me around," Kagome reminded her best friend, "but I just can't picture him as scary or powerful as some of the other things we've faced."

"It's a little hard to get a handle on things," Sango agreed, thinking back on their past adventures. "I couldn't even put the past monsters in order of power if you asked me. It doesn't help that they're all so different."

"There's definitely a variety of bad guys out there."

"Don't tell them I said this," Sango began, flicking her eyes up to the rearview mirror quickly before looking back at the road, "but I'm glad we've got these two to back us up. Miroku told me that most hunters are on their own."

"Speaking of Miroku—"

"Kagome," the brunette interrupted warningly. Her threatening tone was weakened by a blush. "Don't start. I'm not in the mood for teasing."

Blinking at her best friend with wide, innocent eyes, Kagome faked an offended gasp. "I would never tease you! Plus, you know you could ask me _anything_ about Inuyasha."

"Considering we're trapped together in a car or motel room twenty-four hours a day, I'm pretty sure I know everything I need to know about you and Inuyasha," Sango responded dryly. She waved her hand at the atlas, changing the subject. "What's next?"

"We've got another couple of minutes before our next turn," Kagome informed her. Then, not one to be put off easily, Kagome leaned closer to Sango with some seriousness. Carefully, the brunette kept her expression neutral, knowing how easily Kagome could read people. "How's it been going between you two? I mean, it's like Miroku flirts with you _less _now that you're, you know, whatever it is you're doing."

"We're enjoying each other's company in a way that sometimes leads to less clothing and more touching," Sango clarified in a disinterested tone that made Kagome want to laugh out loud. "But, yeah, I can see what you mean. I think he realized he doesn't have to try so hard now that he's got me."

"He's _got _you?" Kagome echoed gleefully.

Sango flushed. "As much as one person can 'have' another," she mumbled, regretting her word choice. "Meanwhile, you and Inuyasha—"

"Are adorable," Kagome finished flippantly. She faced the window and decided that the day was even grayer than it had been ten minutes earlier. "At least it's daytime," she mumbled, leaning forward until she got a better look at the sky directly overhead. A blast of wind hit the Hummer, but the vehicle refused to budge an inch.

"You say that like daytime has been a _good _thing in the past," Sango pointed out.

"Well, fewer bad things happen during the day. Maybe we should just stop going out at night, and things wouldn't seem so rotten all the time."

Her best friend shot Kagome a pointed look. "That creepy little ghost girl attacked _twice_ and Kagura slaughtered our hometown while the sun was still out."

"Yeah, but basically everything else happened at nighttime," Kagome countered. "Don't make me list them all, because that would take forever."

"So, just because it's morning, you feel safe?"

"Safer than after sundown," the girl corrected, absentmindedly playing with Kirara's ear. The demon cat made a high-pitched rumbling noise that Kagome was pretty sure was purring. "Plus, things are just creepier in the dark."

"Says the girl who likes to explore rotting buildings that are abandoned and all boarded up."

"Take a right," Kagome interrupted, double checking the map. "Up ahead at that old wooden sign."

Sango slowed down, turned on her blinker, and made the turn onto an old road that disappeared into the forest. Between the cloudy sky and the towering trees, the car was plunged into darkness. The brunette put on the headlights and slowed down, afraid of crashing again.

"This is really out of the way," she said, her voice tense. "Why can't their secret hideout be easier to find?"

"Because that wouldn't be any fun," Kagome explained, her nose almost pressing against the atlas. "This should be it. Keep on this road for the next few minutes, and it should turn into the town's main street."

It happened abruptly. One second, the Hummer was completely surrounded by trees, and the next second, they were in the middle of a tiny town—one that consisted of only three buildings and a handful of houses. There were only a few people outside, and all of them were men; Sango, of course, wasn't surprised by this. They stared at the car openly and stuck their hands under their jackets, probably reaching for guns or knives or (for all the girls knew) flame-throwers. The women shared a look complete with raised eyebrows as Sango put the car in park in front of the motel.

"Wake up the boys or head out on our own?" Sango asked, wondering if she should start carrying her weapons instead of keeping them packed up in the trunk all the time. Hunters wouldn't turn on other hunters, right?

Kagome sent Sango a look, trying to telepathically remind the brunette that they had promised to stop acting recklessly and to keep close to the hunters until they had enough experience and weapons training. Whether the women wanted to admit it or not, they'd only been hunting for half a year. When Sango continued to look at her with a question in her eyes, Kagome sighed and said out loud, "Wake 'em up."

They needed to work on that silent communication thing some more.

"Miroku," Sango said, reaching back and grabbing his knee. She shook it a few times. "We're here. Rise and shine, boys!"

"Five more minutes," the man mumbled, burrowing his face into the crook of his arm.

Kagome giggled before reaching into the backseat herself, tickling the underside of Inuyasha's bare foot. The half-demon startled upright, his hair a mess and claws poised and ready to attack.

"Woah, there, tiger," the girl joked. She then tilted her head toward the town. "We're in the super-secret hunter hideout."

"Already?" Inuyasha asked, his voice muffled by a yawn.

"That's it; while we're here, you two need to get some sleep," Sango muttered, undoing her seatbelt. "You're both useless right now."

"Watch it," Inuyasha warned, his tone even grumpier than usual as he ushered everyone from the car. "Alright, I've got a few ground rules," he told the group, rolling his shoulders to loosen the tension there. The skin beneath his eyes looked bruised. He had taken on the brunt of the research and, in return, most of the late nights. If Kagome hadn't already been determined to make things easier on him, she definitely was now. "First of all, let me do all the talking."

"Unless he gets into an argument, and then I'm in charge," Miroku cut in. When his partner sent him a dirty look, the hunter merely raised his eyebrows challengingly. They all knew how the half-demon could get.

Grudgingly, Inuyasha continued without commenting. "Secondly, don't go anywhere alone. Just because everyone here is a hunter doesn't mean everyone's a good guy. There are some real messed-up people in this town."

As if to prove his point, there was suddenly a loud shout and the sound of breaking glass. At the bar across the street, a man crashed through the window and landed in the dirt outside. He lay there without moving for several seconds before jumping to his feet with a murderous look on his face. Sensing trouble, all the hunters who had been loitering on the street scattered. (This did not exactly make them look good to Kagome and Sango.)

"Anything else we should know?" Kagome asked, slipping her fingers around Inuyasha's wrist and squeezing tentatively. She suddenly felt like she was in a Wild West movie.

"Yeah," he answered grimly, his expression settling into something that Kagome recognized from the first time they'd met—back when he was just some gruff stranger that she wasn't sure she could ever get to know. "No one leaves this place the same way they came into it."

Surprised, Sango leaned closer to Miroku and tugged on his sleeve. "Is he being overdramatic or should we actually be worried?" she asked him as softly as she could. Thankfully, even if the half-demon heard her, he didn't turn around.

"Don't be _worried_," Miroku responded in a light-hearted voice, but Sango could see the strain in his eyes. "Just… be careful. This place has a way with screwing with people."

The man who had been thrown from the window charged back toward the bar, but Inuyasha stopped him with a sharp, "Hey! Hold it, Shishinki."

When the other hunter turned to face the group, Kagome had to bite back a gasp. The man was obviously not human. He had ruffled, light purple hair and pointed ears. Even more tellingly, half of his face was covered by a mask. The sour look he adopted when he saw Inuyasha did not help.

"What do _you_ want?"

"Information," the half-demon answered, stepping away from his friends. Unfortunately, Shishinski's attention stayed on them, Kagome in particular.

"Oh, yeah? …Well, how much do you have on you? Or I could just take the girl."

"We're all on the same side," Miroku reminded the demon with a friendly smile that only made the other man frown more. "Do we really need to, uh, _pay_ you just to find out if you know anything?"

"Yes."

"Pleasant fellow," Sango commented darkly under her breath.

Immediately, Shishinki's one good eye snapped to the brunette, and he glowered at her, straightening upright to remind her how much bigger (and more dangerous) he was. "What was that, bitch?"

"Nothing!" Kagome answered for Sango, curling her arms around her best friend's elbow as if to hold her in place. The girl smiled as brilliantly as she could at the man and barely managed not to say sarcastically, _I like your mask_.

With a glower, the demon turned back to Inuyasha. "You're better off asking someone else your questions," Shishinki said with a scowl, his fingers curling tightly—threateningly—around a staff that Kagome hadn't noticed before. "There's bad blood between me and your family."

"Oh, just let it go already," Inuyasha griped with a roll of his eyes. "So we fucked up your face. You're alive, right?"

"What do you mean by 'we'? Your asshole of a father did it," Shishinki corrected. His eye, which was red, narrowed cunningly. "You and your brother will never be as powerful as he was."

Kagome looked back and forth between the two men like she was at a tennis match, her eyes growing wider with every insult and snappy comeback. These two _knew _each other. Better yet, Shishinki knew Inuyasha's father. Maybe it was the isolated way the group had spent the last few months, moving from town to town and hardly ever speaking to the friends they managed to make along the way, but Kagome had never really thought about Inuyasha's life before she met him. Somehow, she'd imagined it as one big hunt and sometimes forgot that he'd had a family once—a powerful one at that.

"Big words coming from one of Sesshoumaru's lackeys," Inuyasha snapped.

Miroku stepped between the two, obviously exasperated. "See? This is why you bring me along on these things. We're also Sesshoumaru's employees," he reminded his partner. Then he turned to the demon. "We are all on the _same goddamn side_. So, if you could—please—tell us if you know anything about Naraku."

This made Shishinki pause. Something overcame his expression, and Kagome couldn't figure out if it was guilt or suspicion or something else. "Why are you asking me about that _thing_?"

"You know why," Inuyasha replied, waving his hand at the demon's weapon, the elaborate staff. "Someone let Naraku out of hell, and we all know what you're capable of."

"Wait, what's he's capable of?" Sango demanded. She looked as bewildered as Kagome felt. "What's the staff do?"

Miroku hushed the brunette and took both women by the arm. Pulling them away, he explained quietly, "Shishinki channels a technique through that staff, a technique which can send his enemies directly to hell. It's why he's such a powerful hunter. Decades ago, from what I understand, he used to be the bad guy until he was defeated by Inuyasha's father. Sparing his life, Inu no Taisho demanded that he use his powers to hunt down other monsters. In particular, Shishinki specializes in sending demons and ghouls directly to hell."

"So, why are we suspicious of him?" Kagome asked, her brow furrowed. "I mean, if he's turned over a new leaf and everything."

"He can send people to hell, but he can also pull them out of it."

"Oh," Sango said.

"_Oh_," Kagome echoed, realizing what this could mean. "Do you think he did it? Do you think Shishinki is Naraku's accomplice?"

"I honestly don't kno—crap, Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted, realizing that during this little side discussion, the half-demon and the demon had been arguing so intently that they now stood screaming at each other only inches apart. The human hunter took a step forward, but Kagome quickly ducked under his arm and rushed over to the pair.

Stepping between them, she put a hand to each of their chests and—with some difficulty and a lot of fervent praying—managed to zap them with some spiritual energy, courtesy of her priestess powers. "Cut that out," she scolded them both. Thankfully, Shishinki was so shocked by her little purple glow that he didn't strike back. "We're all hunters here, right? So put on your big boy pants and behave yourselves."

"I—" Shishinki began, flabbergasted.

"—Don't even know what that _means_," Inuyasha finished for him, equally confused. "Big boy—what? Kagome, you just stepped between two arguing demons about to fight."

"Half-demon and a demon," Shishinki corrected him smugly. "But that took some balls. Well, lady balls, anyway." He paused before he looked almost crestfallen. "For the record, I had nothing to do with Naraku. That freak killed my partner last month."

Kagome studied him closely, trying to gauge his sincerity. After a moment, she nodded. "I believe you."

"Kagome!"

She glanced apologetically at the half-demon but stood her ground. "I think he's telling the truth. He hasn't done anything."

"Fine," Shishinki said before Inuyasha had a chance to answer. The demon stepped away from Kagome and looked away from them. "While you're in town, stay out of my way. But…"

"What is it?" Kagome asked, leaning forward with a genuine look of concern when the man trailed off uncertainly. Inuyasha watched this with an openly hostile look on his face. Why did she always have to do that? She just had to make friends with everyone! It really got on his nerves.

"When you track that son of a bitch down, make him suffer," Shishinki finished. As he walked away, he paused next to Sango and Miroku, looking the brunette over carefully. "Don't I know you?"

"I don't think so," she answered. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember you."

Shishinki studied her for several seconds longer, trying to place her in his memory. Finally, with a shake of his head, he started walking away again. "I guess you just look familiar."

It was about then that Kirara, who had been sitting by the Hummer's tire grooming herself, trotted over to Sango and rubbed against her new owner's ankle with a quiet, adorable 'mew' sound. To everyone's surprise, recognition dawned in Shishinki's (one) eye, and he bent down to scratch the demon cat behind the ear.

"Oh, I see now," he said in a quiet voice. "You're one of them."

"One of who?" Sango demanded, understandably confused by Shishinki's words. "What are you talking about?"

Shishinki straightened up, shaking his head and smiling indulgently to himself. "I mean, I thought you were all dead. Guess I was wrong… Anyway, welcome back to town."

"What are you talking about?" the brunette repeated, more forcefully this time. She was too late; Shishinki was already walking away, leaving the entire group staring after him in bewilderment. Sango whirled on the hunters and planted her fists on her hips. "What did he mean? Who does he think I am?"

"I don't know," Miroku answered honestly. "He seemed to know Kirara, though."

"You think the cat came from here?" Inuyasha asked, leaning down to scrutinize the little demon closer. Playfully, Kirara swatted at his nose. "I meant what I said. This place messes with your head."

They stood there for a little longer, and Sango scooped Kirara into her arms, staring at the cat like she expected her to start talking. When she didn't, the brunette sent Kagome a look, but they could only shrug at one another.

"What's the plan?" Miroku asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"You three," Inuyasha started, but he stopped when Kirara growled at him. "Sorry, you _four_ should head into the bar for a bit. I'm going to do a quick lap around here and see what I can find out. Stay out of trouble."

"Aye, aye, captain," his hunting partner quipped with his usual smile and a mocking solute. Inuyasha just glared at him.

"Keep them on a short leash," the half-demon said sharply, jerking at thumb at the women. Sango and Kagome had the good grace to look offended. "They attract more trouble than an idiot walking alone down a back alley in the middle of the night in the bad part of town."

"Jerk," Kagome snapped, but it was (sort of) affectionate.

To Sango and Miroku's amusement and slight exasperation, the half-demon chucked the girl under the chin and smiled roguishly at her.

"Yeah, we're leaving now," Sango muttered, grabbing Kagome by the elbow and tugging her in the direction of the bar. Miroku trailed along behind them, laughing.

"If you wanted some attention, Sango, all you had to do was ask!" Miroku called after her.

When the women entered the bar first, they stumbled to a stop. Everyone inside—roughly a dozen hunters—stopped talking and turned to stare at them. This scrutiny was made worse by the fact that everyone present was at least part demon.

"Hello," Kagome greeted finally with a nervous smile; she actually waved at them, too.

After another brief silence, everyone went back to their conversations. The girls heaved huge sighs of relief and approached the bar. Miroku saw them to their seats with a stern warning of, "Stay here." With that, the hunter left to do some interrogating of his own.

"Something with vodka in it," Sango ordered from the bartender after rolling her eyes at Miroku's retreating back.

"Do you have any juice?" Kagome asked, perching next to her. When their drinks arrived, she sipped it slowly, taking note of the stormy look on Sango's face. "What's wrong?"

At first, the brunette stared into the bottom of her glass, swirling the clear liquid around. Her anger was just starting to spark, but she couldn't pin down exactly why she was suddenly so irritated. A fiery temperament was one of the things she had inherited from her father. Thankfully, Kohaku found it much easier to keep his cool. He was like their mother in that way.

"I don't appreciate the way the guys always treat us like damsels in distress," she finally blurted out, startling Kagome. "We've more than proved ourselves, and we're getting better every day. I mean, you can shoot purple energy from your fingertips!"

"Well, it's easier to infuse projectiles with it, but I can see what you mean," Kagome corrected, smiling weakly. "I think it says something about how much they care that they're always trying to keep us safe."

Sango shook her head sharply. "It's not just them. Look at this town! I haven't seen a single woman since we showed up. That Shishinki guy made that smartass comment about you being a form of payment that Inuyasha could trade for information. Speaking of, didn't that little scene at the end strike you as weird?"

"Very. But, well, Inuyasha's right, Kirara could have come from this town. Didn't we just learn that most demon cats belong to hunters? And, you could just look like her old owner or something."

"We both know that's impossible since I'm a woman," Sango muttered darkly, putting a hand to her forehead and rubbing her temple. A headache was brewing, and she didn't exactly like how foul her mood had turned. In her defense, everyone in the group had been on edge ever since Sesshoumaru's announcement. Life had already been difficult enough when they just had Naraku and Kagura to worry about, but things were getting more and more complicated by the minute. The grand adventure the girls had envisioned when they first set out with the boys was starting to disappear. Sure, they had saved some lives and they were doing good in the world, but it was starting to feel like they were prey instead of the hunters.

"Okay, you're done with the vodka," Kagome chided, pushing the glass out of Sango's hand. "It's not even noon yet. Are you okay?"

For a moment, Sango just stared at her hands. There were a lot of things weighing on her mind, not just the weirdness that she'd endured with Shishinki or the fact that Inuyasha still treated them like little kids half the time. They hadn't had a good fight in weeks, and everything with Naraku was starting to get to her. As Shishinki had just proven outside the bar, the victims were starting to pile up. It wasn't just Kagome anymore; Naraku was getting his revenge on all hunters. Meanwhile, Miroku and Kagome still hadn't told Sango what had happened to Inuyasha while she was knocked out during the fight with Goshinki. This stung, especially since Sango and Miroku had grown so much closer since then.

Before the conversation could go any further, the girls felt a presence behind them. Sango looked over her shoulder expecting Miroku but found a different man instead. He was obviously a demon and looked a lot like Sesshoumaru, except for the fact that his hair was green. The man rapped his knuckles on the counter, and the bartender immediately began to mix him a drink.

As he waited, the hunter glanced at the two women, his expression neutral. His attention was caught by Sango. "Do I know you?" he asked.

"Never been here before," Sango answered, her brow furrowed. It was the second time in less than ten minutes that a demon she had never met seemed to recognize her. Like Shishinki, when the man saw Kirara (now dozing in Sango's lap), realization slid across his face.

"Ah, I see. A Taijiya."

"A what?" Kagome and Sango echoed simultaneously.

The demon took his drink from the bartender with a nod of gratitude and took his time before answering. "You're a hunter from the Taijiya Clan, correct? You look like your father. Or, perhaps it is your grandfather… I apologize. I easily lose track of human years. I suppose you inherited this companion after he died."

"Kirara?" Sango asked at the same time Kagome said, "Wait, seriously, what's a Taijiya Clan?"

As if these questions were annoying (he had been the one to start the conversation!), the man heaved a great sigh. "A band of human hunters. A family, from what I've heard. They were local. I had thought they were all dead, but clearly there is one left."

"Me?" Sango asked, tapping her own chest in disbelief.

"You're a hunter, aren't you?" the demon pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but that's a recent thing. I _was_ a waitress."

"And, you have the cat."

"Sango just came across Kirara a few weeks ago," Kagome explained, raising her eyebrows at Sango in a silent question of, _What is with this guy_?

"Demon companions do not find their owners by accident," the man said cryptically and not without a sneer. "She was meant for you. That one in particular belonged to a man who looked very much like you about… Oh, I want to say fifty years ago, but I could be off by a decade or two."

"Is there any trouble here?" Miroku asked, trotting over. He had finally realized that the girls were talking to a stranger at the bar, and the look of concern on his face was obvious to everyone. Kagome and Sango resented the implication that they had already gotten themselves into trouble.

"This, uh, gentleman here seem to be confusing me with someone," Sango reported, gesturing to the demon.

Offended that they thought he was wrong about something, the man scowled at them. "This woman is a Taijiya. I do not understand why she won't own up to it—it's not a bad thing to be."

"A Taijiya?" Miroku repeated. To the girls' relief, he seemed to understand exactly what the demon was talking about. "I'm afraid that's impossible. Sango isn't from around here, and all her relatives were policemen or firefighters."

"You remember that?" Sango asked him, clearly surprised. "I told you that ages ago!"

"I remember everything you've told me," he assured her with a wink. Despite the situation, Sango felt a little thrill in the pit of her stomach. It was hard to hold on to her dark mood when he was being so charming.

"Policemen and firefighters have been the Taijiya cover story since demons and monsters became 'imaginary' in the middle ages," the demon informed them. "I would remember, since I was alive at the time. The more you argue with me, the more convinced I am that I am correct."

Just then, a beautiful woman approached the demon and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Kagome waggled her eyebrows at Sango, a silent taunt that there were in fact female hunters in the town. "There you are, my love. We have a lead to follow."

"Tsukiyomi," he greeted almost pleasantly. He then tipped his glass toward Sango. "Look what I've found—a Taijiya."

"Really?" the woman asked, eyebrows quirked. "Why, I thought they were all dead!"

"There appears to be one left," he countered. "However, she does not seem aware of her lineage."

"My father was a cop, my grandfather was a cop, and I was a waitress. This—this—demon hunting _thing _is all a coincidence!" Sango argued hotly. Kagome and Miroku could see how exasperated the brunette had become. This wasn't surprising since if the demon was right, then that meant Sango knew nothing about her own family. It meant her own father had lied to her about her entire life.

"My dear," Tsukiyomi replied softly, leaning into the demon's side like she belonged there. "Hunting is a calling, not a 'thing,' as you so delicately put it. It sounds to me like your father tried to keep you in the dark, tried to save you, but destiny has guided you right back to where you belong. You are clearly a demon hunter following in your ancestors' footsteps."

Sango opened her mouth, and Kagome could tell by the fire in her eyes that what she was about to say was not going to be very nice. Quickly, the girl jumped off her barstool and placed herself between the other two women.

"Hi, I'm Kagome," she introduced herself, holding out her hand and successfully interrupting the conversation.

"Tsukiyomi," the woman responded, gesturing at herself. She then indicated the demon with the green hair. "This is Hoshiyomi." Finally, she reached out to shake Kagome's extended hand. The moment their skin made contact, a familiar purple light enveloped their hands. Everyone in the bar hushed and turned to stare once again. After a pause, Kagome snatched her hand back and turned wide eyes on Tsukiyomi.

"What was that?" she demanded.

Unlike Kagome, Tsukiyomi seemed more pleasantly surprised than spooked. "Oh! I see now. We are the same."

"I don't—Excuse me?"

"You and I, we're both priestesses. I apologize for not realizing it immediately. It's this town; everyone's energy is so mixed together that I—"

"Wait, I don't understand," Kagome cut her off. "Are you trying to tell me you can also purify evil with this… whatever you want to call it?"

"We can do so much more than that! We can seal demons and create or undo rituals as well," Tsukiyomi assured Kagome. "Developing our powers is a lifelong pursuit, but I would very much enjoy exchanging knowledge with you."

Instead of answering the woman, Kagome turned on Miroku. "Inuyasha said he hadn't heard of anyone with powers like mine for decades! Remember? It made me feel like such a freak."

"You're not alone, my dear," Tsukiyomi assured Kagome, again taking her hand. This time, there was no big light display. Kagome did feel a tug, though, as if her blood was flowing just a bit faster when their skin touched. "I can assure you that I am nearly one hundred and thirty years old, so I am not surprised that your friend does not remember me."

A hundred and thirty was about a century older than she looked, and Kagome's bewilderment grew. Would she learn how to do that, to keep her body young? Or was there more to Tsukiyomi than the woman was revealing?

"And, for the record, Inuyasha is far from all-knowing," Miroku added. "Oh, great, speak of the devil."

Inuyasha stalked into the bar, and his three partners were momentarily distracted by how well the hunter fit in with the crowd. Not only was he built similar to and dressed just like all the other hunters, but his demonic blood wasn't as out of place as it had up until then. Once again, Kagome had that overwhelming feeling that he was out of her reach, at least for now.

When the half-demon saw everyone standing together at the bar, his serious expression fell into one of exasperation, and he jogged over.

"Okay, what happened?" he demanded of Miroku with a vague hand gesture at the women. What he really meant was, _What did they do this time_?

"I'm apparently the descendant of a long line of human demon hunters, and Kagome just met another priestess," Sango filled him in, not sounding at all amused. "Inuyasha, what the hell is the Taijiya Clan."

"Uh," he began, thrown by her sudden question. "It's a clan of humans who have been killing demons for a couple of centuries. They've refused to work for Sesshoumaru or my dad, so I never really dealt with them… Oh, crap. Wait, you're sure your dad wasn't a hunter, right?"

"I didn't even believe in demons until I met you," Sango pointed out. Kagome reached out to her best friend, and the brunette stumbled back a step, looking like she'd been cornered. "I need a few minutes," she announced, breaking through the small crowd that encircled her.

"Sango!" Miroku called after her, but she was already on the move, Kirara craddled to her chest.

She flew out of the bar and ran to the Hummer, breathing heavier than her little jog warranted. Her lungs felt tight, and she suddenly worried that she was hyperventilating. It had been long enough that she could think about her father without it hurting as much, but the idea that her entire family had lied to her about not only demons but themselves as well stabbed at her heart. She leaned against the hood of the car, her face turned up to the sky. It had started drizzling again, and the cool precipitation felt good on her hot cheeks.

But, now that they were poking into her past, into her memory, how well had she really known her father?

Because, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she had never seen her father or any of her uncles in their uniforms. He would disappear for days at a time, ever since she and Kohaku were little, but in the years leading up to his death, his behavior had become more and more erratic. There was also the fact that everyone in her family had died so young and always in tragic ways that had led to closed-casket funerals or no recovered bodies at all.

He had been so strict and controlling, as well. The doors always had to be locked, and Sango had learned how to shoot a gun at a young age. Every lesson he taught her was about trusting only family and protecting her brother at all costs. She had always assumed that it was because of his job and all the horrible things he had seen on the streets as a cop, but that wasn't making as much sense any more. Now that she was out in the world and seeing what sort of monsters lurked in the shadows, she could feel that same paranoia overcoming her. Nothing was at it seemed.

Not even her own family.

"I hate this," she told Kirara, her voice strained. The little cat demon turned her face up to her owner's and licked the tip of her nose. "And you, apparently you're just some kind of heirloom. Did you find your way to me because someone else like my dad or my grandfather owned you? Huh? Is _any_ of this an accident, did I ever have a choice about what I would do with my life?"

"Everything is your choice, even when it feels like someone else chose your path for you."

Sango chuckled, unsurprised that he had followed her. When she looked over, there he was—Miroku, standing only a few feet away with his hands in his pockets. As always, he looked so in control and calm, like nothing could rattle him. Of course, Sango knew this wasn't true. She'd seen it several times over the months, when he let that cool facade crack and his own inner turmoil shine through. It was so rare, though, that for a moment she could see him being her rock, a constant figure to hold on to while everything else raged around her.

"You could choose to walk away," Miroku told her honestly. "Nothing is holding you to this. Right now, I honestly believe nothing would come after you."

"What do you think happened?"

When he took a step forward, Sango almost thought he would hold his hand out to her, but he kept to himself. "I don't know. Most hunters die alone. Most don't want a family, but if they do, they don't want their children to live this kind of a life. It's hard. We're always on the road seeing horrible things and on the verge of dying. The Taijiya Clan was rare in that they handed down hunting like it was something to inherit. They looked at it like a duty, safekeeping the world from monsters."

"And my dad?"

"I can see three possibilities. One, he was a hunter, but he didn't want you or your brother to fall into that line of work. Two, he was a hunter, and he was waiting for you to reach a certain age before he began to train you to join him. Or three, he managed to escape. He carved out a normal life and tried to live it, working as an officer of the law in a pale imitation of being a hunter. He did it to give you and Kohaku a better chance at life than he was born with himself."

For several long moments, Sango was quiet. She stroked the soft fur between Kirara's ears, a small part of her knowing that this little creature belonged to her, whether they had come across one another by accident or if they were meant to work together. "And if I did decide to leave this right now, go back to Kohaku and pick up waitressing again, what would _you_ do?"

Miroku shook his head. "No. I'm not ready; there's still more out there for me to do. I can't walk away from this."

"Could you ever?"

Now, this time, Miroku reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, gently tugging her to him. "Yes. Probably not next month or even a year from now, but yes. Someday, I want out. Before I met you, that didn't even seem like an option."

It didn't take long for Sango to allow him to pull her to his chest. As long as no one was watching, she was okay with letting him support her until she could feel like the earth was steady under her feet once again. "I guess I can wait until someday," she agreed finally, wondering if she would ever know the truth about her family.

* * *

><p>Three days later found Kagome away from Inuyasha's watchful eye and with a new partner. She moved quietly through the forest, Tsukiyomi leading the way. With much pleading of both of their demons, the men had allowed them to go after a rather low-level demon without any interference. When Kagome looked at Tsukiyomi, she could only see a mentor. Here was a woman with the same powers, a priestess who worked alongside her demonic lover. It was difficult to ignore the parallels.<p>

"Is your friend going to be okay?" Tsukiyomi whispered, hanging back as Kagome caught up. They were weighed down by several layers of waterproof clothing. Since the gang's arrival to the town, the drizzly mess had turned into a steady stream of rain. Winter was coming to an end.

It had been their first night there that Inuyasha and the others had heard of locals being lured away by women, only bones being found afterwards. Tsukiyomi had approached Kagome, asking if she would like to spend a few hours on a hunt together to learn more about her powers. Kagome, who was always ready to take on a new challenge, especially one that made her more useful, eagerly agreed. Now, they were looking for whatever monster was eating people. (Once again, Kagome thought darkly, the demon was eating its victims. She'd almost missed this. Except, not really.)

"Sango?" Kagome asked, tugging her hood closer to her head. "She's the strongest person I know. She'll be fine."

After several seconds of silence, Tsukiyomi admitted softly, "I remember her grandfather. It wasn't until I saw her with her hair pulled back this morning that I saw the resemblance, but Sango looks just like Shako. That little cat belonged to him as well."

"To her grandfather?" Kagome echoed. "Miroku told us he thought Kirara was young."

"To a demon, fifty years old _is_ young," the priestess reminded her. "I promise, however, that I know nothing of her father."

Kagome was quiet, but she took the lead this time. She stepped over some brush, trying hard to keep her jeans from snagging on low-hanging branches. "I guess it's just another mystery we need to solve."

The long silence that followed was telling.

"What else do you know?" Kagome asked, looking back at Tsukiyomi, again marveling at how young she looked considering the age she claimed she was.

The priestess stuck close to the girl's heels, her eyes thoughtful. "Naraku is a thorn in all our sides. I think you'll find a lot of information in this town if you keep digging. I don't know for a fact who raised him from hell, but I believe I can point you in the right direction."

"And that is?"

"The Shikon no Tama," Tsukiyomi confided. "It is a very powerful jewel that has changed hands many times, but if you can find the present owner, then I think you can find the answer to the question you've been asking."

Thankful, Kagome committed this name to memory, wondering if it was a lead that would actually take them anywhere.

Before they could discuss things any longer, there was a tremendous roar, and the very air shook around them. The women shared a knowing look and quickly pushed through the treeline and into a swampy clearing. The most disgusting pile of slimy, green flesh sat in the middle of the marsh. Piles of bones littered the ground around it, some floating in the water as if they were hollow. Had the demon sucked the marrow out of them?

"Ew," Kagome said, not bothering to keep her voice down. The way the demon was squirming around made it clear that the creature knew they were there. "What is that thing?"

Surprised, Tsukiyomi answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "A salamander demon!"

"Seriously?" the girl demanded, pulling a face. "My brother had a pet salamander. It looking _nothing_ like that."

Laughing brightly, the priestess took Kagome by the wrist and led the girl to the edge of the marsh. They started to sink into the spongy ground, and Kagome struggled to forget about the muck she'd have to clean off her boots when they were done. "Want to know the secret?" Tsukiyomi asked, her fingers still wrapped strongly around her wrist. There was no purple light where their skin made contact, but Kagome's blood felt boiling beneath her touch, like her energy was excited by the priestess's presence.

"Yes," Kagome answered. _Duh_.

"You," Tsukiyomi explained, her voice low and her eyes twinkling, "have to believe in yourself."

Oh.

Yes.

_Of course_.

Just as Kagome started to laugh, unable to contain her giggles no matter how rude they were, the priestess hushed her. "You need to remember that you have the power in you, and the power to purify is stronger than anything any demon can throw at you. As long as you believe in the power, as long as you believe in yourself to use that power, it will always be there, right at your fingertips."

"So, you're saying that the reason it's been unstable in the past is not a lack of practice but because I didn't believe in myself?"

"Exactly," Tsukiyomi said, applauding Kagome's revelation. "Practice is a lot of it, and you still need to gather the knowledge to use it in different ways. Don't overuse it either, because it can drain your energy. You, your body I mean, must also become stronger."

"Then I can take on Naraku?"

"Then you can take on the world."

Now that she had provided this bit of wisdom, Tsukiyomi pulled Kagome closer to the demon. Its sheer mass was intimidating, but as calm as can be, the priestess raised their joined arms, and Kagome could feel the pull inside of her grow stronger.

"Believe," Tsukiyomi whispered.

So Kagome did.

Together, they sent a stream of light toward the demon, a glow stronger than anything Kagome had achieved in the past even when combining it with a projectile weapon. When it connected, there was an explosion so bright that both women were temporarily blinded. When the light faded, Kagome blinked several times until she could see clearly. The mass of flesh was shimmering and dissolving, and for a moment, the salamander demon was almost beautiful. Then it was gone.

"So," Kagome began, staring at Tsukiyomi with renewed faith. "The Shikon no Tama, huh?"

* * *

><p>Kagome returned to the motel that night feeling wet, cold, and completely sure of herself. She let herself in, and the first thing she saw was Sango and Miroku nestled together on a bed with Kirara curled up between them, all sleeping soundly.<p>

"Hey," Inuyasha said, his voice hushed. It drew her attention to the side of the room where he was sitting at a rickety desk. There was a small mountain of books piled in front of him, and he looked even more tired than he had when they first arrived.

"Hey," she whispered, leaning her hip against the wall and leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. She let her lips linger, noticing how warm his skin felt. "Did you get any sleep?"

"Tried," he answered, rubbing the bridge of his nose with a grimace. "There's just a lot to go through. How was the hunt?"

"Purified it." Her voice was boastful and proud, but she knew she deserved it. "When Tsukiyomi and I worked together, it was the easiest thing in the world. I can't explain it. It was like my power was amplified just by having her there. If only we'd known about her sooner, I could have gotten some training."

The half-demon leaned back in his chair, and he snaked his arm around her waist, pulling Kagome into his lap. He rested his chin on top of her head, and when he spoke, she could feel his chest vibrate with the sound of his voice. "Remember what I said earlier. Just because she's a hunter doesn't make her a good guy."

"You really think Tsukiyomi is dangerous?"

"No," Inuyasha admitted. "Not intentionally. I don't know how much I trust that boyfriend of hers, though."

"I like them," Kagome insisted.

"Of course you do. You like everyone."

"Careful," Kagome warned with a giggle, "or I might just start thinking you're jealous." She didn't have to be able to see him to know he rolled his eyes at that. "Oh, hey," she began suddenly, sitting up straight. She wiggled around until she was facing him straight on. "Tsukiyomi told me that we should look into something called the Shikon no Tama."

"A myth," the half-demon dismissed immediately.

"Like werewolves were a myth?"

"Fine," he conceded. "I'll look into it. But, you really can't get your hopes up. Even if the jewel is real, there are as many stories about it being evil as there are about it being a power of good."

Kagome paused, staring at him with a shake of her head. "What?"

"You want to use the jewel to get rid of Naraku, right?"

"Can we do that?" Kagome asked, eyes wide. "The way Tsukiyomi talked about it, I thought it was the answer to how he was pulled out of hell. She said if we could track down who has it now, we'd know who Naraku's accomplice was. Do you really think we can use it to send him back into hell?"

"I guess we'll have to find out," Inuyasha answered. "But that means more research."

"I guess I don't mind helping out this time," Kagome said, sliding the first book off the top of the pile. "But _only_ this time."


	19. Enchanted

Okay, I'm back! Sorry for the major delay, but I had to wrap things up with school and work. Consider this "Part One" of the update. "Part Two" will be posted in a few days. This chapter should provide some answers, help you regroup after the (unexpected) hiatus, and bring up some more questions. This chapter is more dialogue-heavy while the second part will have the action.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.f

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Part One: Enchanted

* * *

><p>Early one morning, Kagome stumbled into the bar (which was the center of the hunter's town) and found herself a booth. She ordered a large cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs, trying very hard not to be concerned by the fact that the bar was the only place in town to eat. As she waited for her breakfast, she skimmed the menu. It was, actually, just a tattered and stained piece of paper with basic meals written with a sharpie. The special that day was a cheeseburger. The special had been a cheeseburger every day for the past week that the group had been in town.<p>

Apparently, even when the hunters were "home," all they ate was diner food. Even if it was served in a bar.

Two days earlier, she had watched the bartender—a tall man with a prominent scar on his face and a cloak to cover the fact that his entire right arm looked like a demon's—drive off in an old pick-up truck and return hours later with food. The few families who lived in the town bought some groceries off of him, and the rest went straight to the bar's kitchen.

The chefs, Kagome had learned, were actually a group of orphans who lived with the bartender, whose name was Goryomaru. As far as she could tell, the three boys didn't actually have any names. Every time anyone talked to or about them, they were always collectively known as 'the Gyoja.' They were also trained demon hunters.

When Kagome complained about this to Inuyasha ("Aren't there child labor laws or child endangerment laws or _something_?"), he'd merely rolled his eyes and reminded her that hunting was a job that ran in the family. Their dead parents had been demon hunters, so they were expected to do the same. Luckily, there had been another hunter to take them in. If Goryomaru hadn't, they would have been sent to an orphanage to live in a world where no one understood the danger lurking around every corner.

("But they're children," Kagome had repeated, angry on their behalf.

"I was six years old when I killed my first demon," Inuyasha had then told her, his voice level and serious. He didn't seem to understand why this horrified Kagome so much. "Sesshoumaru was only three, the show off. We always knew what we'd do with our lives. At least these kids have a future planned.")

Tsukiyomi, the priestess that Kagome had been training with for several days, had left with her husband to answer a distress call. No one had heard from them since, but Kagome was the only one who was worried. The general consensus seemed to be that unless they had proof that a hunter had died, they just left well enough alone.

Miroku and Inuyasha had spent hours interviewing other hunters as they came and went from the town, but so far they hadn't learned anything useful. There were plenty of stories about Naraku; he'd gained a reputation since his resurrection, and practically every hunter knew his name and was ready to take him out if they could. Unfortunately, no one knew how to do that—or even where to find him. Evil lackeys were popping up all over the country, and Sesshoumaru could barely keep up with the demand. The death count was rising on both sides. There were also no leads on the Shikon no Tama.

Goryomaru set a plate loaded with greasy eggs in front of Kagome with his human hand, gracing her with a somewhat pleasant smile. "Enjoy," he said gruffly.

"Thanks," she mumbled, poking at the food with her fork half-heartedly. What she really wanted was a bowl of healthy, steaming oatmeal and some freshly squeezed orange juice.

No. That was a lie. What she _really _wanted was to take out Naraku and be done with this whole mess.

Her stomach tightening with a sickening lurch, she shoved the plate of grease away from her. In the beginning, the situation had seemed scary but manageable, but the anticipation was turning it into something unimaginable.

It was right about that moment when the door opened, briefly letting in sounds from the street outside. Several hunters were packing up, getting ready for jobs away from town. She could hear car doors slamming and men discussing things in loud, angry voices. Tensions were running high. Then, the door closed, and the bar was quiet again.

Kagome thought about looking up to see who it was—a small part of her hoped it was Tsukiyomi, safe and sound—but she was too busy feeling angry at herself for being bored and useless when Naraku was _right out there_, just waiting to be hunted down.

"Excuse me, miss, but have you seen a really pretty lady?" a tiny voice asked in a cheery tone. "She's got these big blue eyes and the most beautiful smile _ever_."

This is how Kagome ran into an old friend.

* * *

><p>"Look," Sango began, running her hand through her bangs for the umpteenth time until they stood on end. Miroku was sitting next to her on the curb, his arm slung around her shoulders so casually that you wouldn't have guessed they were still new at being a couple. "I'm just saying that we can't do research forever. We can't sit here in town and hope that we come across something while there are people out there dying."<p>

Inuyasha leaned against the Hummer, his arms crossed against his chest and a sour look on his face. "Out of all of us, you know I hate research the most. I'd rather be out there turning over every rock and checking under every bed for that scumbag monster, but the truth is—"

"We have nothing," Miroku finished for his partner, each of the men nodding at one another in a show of solidarity. When Sango began to move away from her boyfriend with a betrayed scoff, he just tightened his hold on her and knocked his forehead against hers in an annoyingly cute way that made Inuyasha roll his eyes. "Until we know what we are up against, where to find him, and how to take him out, we'd just be walking into a trap. Naraku hasn't been around long enough to have covered all his tracks. It's only a matter of finding where he slipped up—where he left us a trail to follow."

"And you seriously think we're going to find it in this town?" Sango demanded, gesturing hopelessly at the handful of rundown buildings. Ever since the bombshell about her family had dropped, she'd been feeling restless and ready for answers—or action, whichever came first. "No one here knows anything, and we can't keep looking through dusty old books."

"Sango—"

"Kagome is in danger!" the brunette interrupted, her voice loud and harsh. Immediately, she clapped her hand over her mouth, but it was too late to take her words back. When she spoke again, her voice was carefully controlled. "Let's just say what we're all thinking. The longer we wait on this, the stronger Naraku gets. Kagome's his main target, and _none _of us want anything to happen to her. And she knows she's in danger, too."

The three stared at one another for a few minutes before Inuyasha finally admitted, "She hasn't slept through the night all week."

"Nightmares?" Sango asked. Inuyasha confirmed her guess with a nod.

"It was easier when Tsukiyomi was here. At least then Kagome was getting stronger and learning how to control her spiritual powers, but now Tsukiyomi's gone and that's just one more person for Kagome to worry about."

Before they could talk any more about Kagome's status as Naraku's number one target, the girl herself came tearing out of the bar with the largest grin on her face. She skidded to a stop in front of them, panting through her smile.

"Guys! Guys! He's here!"

"Who? Naraku?" Inuyasha demanded, his hand already inside his coat looking for the revolver Kagome knew he always had on him. "I'll gut that son of a—"

"What? No, it's—"

But Miroku, ignoring her protests, leapt to his feet and shoved Kagome behind him. "Here's the plan—Inuyasha and I will distract him while Sango takes shots when he's open. Kagome, wait until we've got him worn down and then take him out with your—"

"Everyone, calm down!" Kagome ordered, punching Miroku in the shoulder and shooting her boyfriend a dark look. "Yeesh, give me a chance to speak; it's not Naraku. As if he'd really attack us in full daylight in the middle of a town full of hunters. It's Shippou."

"Shippou?" Sango echoed. Kagome noticed that she too had her gun in her hands, and the fact that her best friend was ready to kill at a moment's notice almost worried her. Almost, but not quite, since nothing seemed normal to her anymore. "The fox kit?"

"Yeah!" the girl confirmed happily, gesturing toward the bar. Shippou was standing in the entranceway with a wide grin on his face. Behind him was Kaede, the old woman who had been taking care of him for nearly three months. "Kaede brought him here," she added unnecessarily.

After Kaede and Shippou pulled up alongside the group, there was a flurry of greetings. Shippou jumped into Kagome's arms and nuzzled there, looking as if he would never let go. Touched that she had left that big of a mark on the little boy after their few days together, the girl tightened her hold on the little boy.

Once everyone had quieted down and Sango had introduced Kirara to the newcomers, Kaede explained, "I came here not only for the safety of a town full of hunters now that the—excuse me—shit has hit the fan but also because I knew I could find you all here."

"How could you know?" Kagome asked immediately. She gasped when an idea hit her, unable to hide the tremor in her voice as she demanded, "Did Naraku get to you? Has he done anything to you?"

"No," Kaede denied quickly, waving Kagome's worries away with a vague hand gesture. "I have not heard from him directly—at least, I don't believe it was him…" There, she trailed off uncertainly. When she saw how confused this made everyone, she followed up by saying, "I suppose I should explain."

"Inside," Sango suggested, herding their group into the motel.

Since they had stayed longer than originally planned, the hunting party had splurged on two rooms instead of their normal one. Unfortunately, for everyone to hear the old woman's story, they had to cram into only one of them.

"First off," the brunette started when they had all found seats, "how'd you know about the town?"

"If you will all remember from some time ago, I once had a sister," Kaede reminded them all.

"Kikyou," Kagome answered. "The zombie."

"That would be the one," the old woman confirmed wryly. "This may be surprising, but I knew about the supernatural long before I learned of my sister's fate after her untimely death fifty years ago."

Kagome and Sango shared a look, both thinking the same thing—they'd always suspected as much. There had been _something_ about Kaede that told them she knew more than she let on. They had had similar thoughts about Totosai, the chief of medicine during their job at the hospital, and even Myoga, the coroner they had spoken with about Yura of the Hair's victims. If Kagome had to guess, she thought the two old men were either former hunters or consultants for them. Kaede did not seem like a hunter, so…

"Once, when I was much younger," Kaede confided, looking so ancient that it was difficult to imagine her any other way, "I worked here, in this very town. I was the doctor who began the clinic on the corner."

"Ohh," the girls said simultaneously before Kagome followed up with a, "That explains it."

"I hate to cut this short," Inuyasha said abruptly, not sounding sorry at all, "but you said you knew you could find us here. How?"

"About a week after you left Shippou with me and went to see Kikyou on my behalf, I received a package," Kaede explained, rustling through a knapsack until she pulled out a nondescript box. "The package came with two letters. One of them was addressed to me, the other was for you."

"All of us?" Sango asked.

"Kagome," the old woman clarified, handing Kagome a sealed letter. "Mine said to hold onto the package until the time was right to find you here and hand it over."

"But you got this months ago," Miroku pointed out, looking over Kagome's shoulder at the letter with distrust. "How'd the person know that you would be able to find us in town when the time came? Or that you would even know when the right time was?"

"Whoever it is must have known the Naraku situation was going to get worse and that we would come here for answers," Inuyasha muttered unhappily. "I don't like this; it means we're too predictable. Who is it? What's in the package?"

"I did not open the box, and there was no name included in the letter." For a moment, Kaede stared hard at the package still in her hands as though she could see through the wrapping to the mystery inside. "I noticed the strange deaths being reported across the country. When I tried calling Kagome's phone and couldn't get through, I knew it was time to track you down."

Knowing she would have to do it eventually, Kagome unsealed the letter. The message was short. "You'll need this," she read out loud. "Don't screw up."

"Did they sign their name?" Inuyasha demanded, pushing off from the wall to get a closer look. Kagome tried not to shiver when he leaned close enough for her to feel his breath brushing against her cheek.

"No," Kagome said. Then she saw something that made her heart leap into her throat. "But I know who sent it anyway."

Sango took the letter from Kagome's hands, her eyes sweeping over the hand-written words. Her gaze came to rest on a scribbled symbol in the bottom corner. It was messy, but she knew exactly what it was—a feather. "Kagura."

Kagome nodded, her mind racing. As if someone had just handed her a very important puzzle piece that she had been missing, she was finally able to put together the big picture. She thought about everywhere they had been in the past few weeks, all the monsters they had fought and the people they had encountered. So much had happened, yet suddenly it felt like Kagura had expected it all from the very beginning.

"She knew. This whole time, she _knew_. She sent this package to Kaede just after Naraku escaped from hell—she sent it even before she went to our hometown and killed all those people. During that entire confrontation, she had already been fighting against Naraku, had already sent Kaede something to _help us_."

"Slow down, Kagome, what are you talking about?" Sango asked, watching as emotions raced across her best friend's face as she put together clues that none of the others could see. There was an excitement there, almost feverish, that made Sango realize just how lost Kagome had been. The group had been searching fruitlessly for weeks for an answer, and Kagome had nothing but blind faith to lean on—faith that when the time came, she would be strong enough to take on Naraku, that her friends would be there to back her up, that everything would be fine. But now, it was as if her best friend had something even stronger in her hands than faith alone.

"It all makes sense!" the girl shouted, pushing past Sango and searching the desk. It was covered with books and papers from the hunters' research. She found a mostly blank sheet of paper and drew a line on it. "At least it's starting to. Everything's connected; we just had to put it all in order."

"Kagome—"

"Ten weeks ago, the witch, Urasue, opened a gate to hell and shoved me through it because she wanted to give my power to Kikyou. While the gate was still open, Naraku clawed his way out and dragged me _and _Kagura with him. He deposited me safely in Kikyou's apartment since killing me back then would have been too easy and then disappeared with Kagura. One week later, a package from Kagura arrived at Kaede's apartment."

"And one week after that was when Naraku had her attack our hometown to draw you out, but she let us go in the end," Sango added, trying to keep up. She watched Kagome scribble down each of these events, probably just so that she could picture how everything was fitting together. "Even though you didn't remember at the time, you're saying that you had already met her. You three escaped hell together."

"Yes, with someone else's help," Kagome reminded them all. "Somehow Naraku was strong enough to escape when Urasue opened the door for him—he hadn't been in hell that long, so he shouldn't have been strong enough to get out _and _take Kagura with him, even if Urasue had stupidly given him an opportunity to get out."

"We think that someone, the person who helped, had the Shikon no Tama and did it from the old insane asylum," Miroku clarified, watching as Kagome's sketch turned into a simple timeline for them all to follow. "The accomplice used the jewel to strengthen Naraku, but we don't know who it was or how they did it."

"After that," Inuyasha reminded everyone, "Naraku sent Jinenji after Kagome and then Goshinki after all of us."

"But Kagura warned Sesshoumaru about the Jinenji thing," Kagome pointed out. "See? She's had our back, and now she's sent us a gift."

Although Kaede had only followed part of this conversation—and poor Shippou looked completely lost but content enough to just enjoy being around Kagome again—the old woman handed Kagura's 'gift' over.

As Kagome opened the package, she felt the tension rise in the room. Everyone had expectations about what would be inside because in that tiny box was their trump card, the thing that would fix _everything_. Her fingers shook as she tore through the plain paper, revealing a small, ordinary box. When she flipped open the lid, she couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Whatever Kagura had sent them was broken.

"Holy shit," Inuyasha said, astonished.

Surprised by his reaction, she looked up from the box to search her friends' faces. Sango looked just as disappointed as she felt, but the hunters, Shippou, and Kaede were in awe. Having obviously missed something, Kagome reached in to pluck out Kagura's gift to examine closer.

"Don't touch it!" Miroku ordered, startling Kagome.

Inside the box were two little pieces of something that, if put together, would create most (but not all)of a small sphere. One of the pieces was a milky lavender color that reminded her a bit of the glow she created when accessing her power. The other chunk was the color of a fresh bruise, so dark purple that it was almost black. Both pieces seemed alive as they pulsated with an inner power now that they had been released from the box.

"It's broken," Kagome mumbled, confusion obvious in her voice. "What _is _it?"

"The Shikon no Tama," Miroku explained. "Well, part of it. Can't you feel its power?"

Kagome and even Shippou both nodded, but Sango shook her head. She could tell that everyone else could feel something, but unlike Inuyasha and Shippou, Sango wasn't a demon, and unlike the other three humans, she had no claim to supernatural powers through mediation or birthright. "This is the all-powerful jewel you guys have been talking about?"

Before the hunters could stop her again, Kagome reached into the box and closed her fingers around the two pieces of stone. Immediately, a pulse of power radiated through her, rushing up her arm and through her chest. At first, if she had to describe it, it felt like the stones had tried to overwhelm her in a terrible, malevolent sort of way—although one piece much more so than the other. But then, little by little, the power faded to a gentle, warm glow in her hand.

When she spread her fingers open, she revealed that the two pieces had fused together into an almost-complete sphere, and it was now a soft, calm pink.

"You purified it," the half-demon said, somehow sounding both surprised and proud.

"The jewel feeds off the soul of its owner," Kaede reminded the hunters. "Kagome is a good person, so by extension, the jewel is now good as well."

Sango closed her eyes, trying to wrap her mind around what was happening. Even months into their adventure, the supernatural could still throw her for a loop. "So the previous owners were evil," she guessed, remembering the color of the pieces before Kagome touched them. "I'm guessing the darker one belonged to Naraku while he was in hell. Who had the other?"

"Urasue," Miroku realized out loud, shaking his head with a half-amused smile as if it was all actually very simple. "Naraku had a piece in hell, which linked him to Urasue. When she opened hell's gate to get rid of Kagome, he had to have been able to feel it, to know that it was his opportunity to escape. I doubt the old witch even knew what she was doing. It was because of the jewel that she was powerful enough to open a gate in the first place."

"She must have had it for decades," Kaede said. "It explains how she had to power to raise Kikyou from the dead and bind my poor sister to her for half a century."

"I didn't even realize the jewel was broken," Inuyasha muttered, raking his hand through his long hair, looking troubled. Somehow, Kagome could sense that there was more bothering him than what he was willing to talk about. "That explains why we weren't able to track it down. It was in several places at once. Nobody could make it whole again since one of the chunks was stuck in hell. What I want to know is, who has the last piece?"

"Naraku's little helper. Whoever Sesshoumaru sensed in the insane asylum has the third piece and used it to communicate with Naraku, to give that freak an extra boost to escape," Sango guessed. "So Kagura stole Urasue and Naraku's pieces and sent them to Kagome. We've got two-thirds of a jewel, and it's purified, but there's still someone else out there with the last piece, someone who's on Naraku's side."

"And unlike Urasue, whoever that person is, they are knowingly helping in all of this. We shouldn't be targeting Naraku," Miroku began.

"We should be targeting whoever has the last piece of the jewel," Kagome finished for him, tightening her fingers around the Shikon no Tama until it disappeared from view. Despite its size, it felt heavy in her hand. The light it radiated was absorbed by her skin, warming her all the way to the core. It felt almost like a part of her. "So how do we find them?"

Inuyasha broke off from the circle of people who surrounded Kagome. He walked several steps away, stopping next to the motel window to look out into the deserted street. Over the past week, nearly every hunter had been assigned a job and left to take care of the chaos Naraku had spread across the country.

He could feel everyone's eyes on his back, and the weight on his shoulders suddenly felt heavier than it had in years. Not only were these people depending on him, looking to _him _for answers, but there was an entire country facing a fight they just couldn't win. Not without one hell of a secret weapon. It was a lot of responsibility for someone who had barely managed to keep himself and his partner alive six months earlier when it was just the boys hunting vampires and angry spirits.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome prodded, her voice soft, troubled, tugging at something in his heart.

"_We_ don't have to do the finding," he said finally, the path ahead of them suddenly very clear.

He turned around to face her, but his eyes focused on her closed hand instead. Inside was a jewel that called out to him in a way that it didn't speak to any of the others in the room, except perhaps Shippou There was a gash in Inuyasha's soul, an internal struggle that raged between human and demon. Just as the Shikon tempted his demonic half, its siren's call would be heard by every demon in the country.

Finally meeting Kagome's eyes, he warned her, "He'll find us."

* * *

><p>"So!" Kagome began, her voice as cheerful as she could possibly make it. In the end, her tone was forced—as was the smile on her face. "Are you ready?"<p>

Immediately, Inuyasha shook his head. "I hate this," he said. _His_ voice was way too low, showing strain as he tried to store away all the feelings that were struggling to come out. Somehow, ever since he'd met Kagome, he seemed to_ feel _so much more than he had before. It wasn't always unpleasant, but sometimes it was enough to make him wonder if being alone was actually preferable. "This is a crappy idea."

Very carefully, Kagome reminded him, "This was _your _idea."

"Yeah, but…" The hunter trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

Because it _had_ been his idea. Still, that didn't mean he liked it. In fact, it was possibly the worst idea he had ever come up with in his entire life—and that was saying something, considering all the adventures he and Miroku had had over the years. Standing there, facing Kagome, he felt his stomach plummet to his feet. She looked so small and vulnerable, even though he knew she contained enough power in her hands to purify some of the worst demons out there.

Unhappily, Inuyasha listlessly tugged at the hem of her jacket before zipping it up for her. "Got your gun?" he asked, his voice gruffer than usual.

"Of course I do; what do you take me for?" Kagome joked weakly. "I'll be fine."

"Crappy, horrible, shitty idea."

"Fine," she repeated, standing on her tip-toes and pressing a light kiss to his nose.

"This goes against every instinct I have as both a hunter and your—"

"Boyfriend?" she finished for him when he broke off with a grunt. "It's okay," she teased, "you can say it." There was a very lengthy pause before she added, "Is there anything else you want to say before I go?"

It hung there in the air between them, the three words he had yet to say even after all they had been through.

_I love you_.

"Be careful," he said instead, stepping away and interlocking his fingers to force himself to stop reaching out to her.

As she turned away from him, his eyes caught on the glimmer at her throat. She had threaded the incomplete Shikon no Tama on a necklace like gaudy costume jewelry and looped it around her neck. Even though Kagome tried to tuck the jewel under her collar, Inuyasha was constantly aware that it was there. Softly, so soft that it wasn't actually a sound—more like a feeling, tugging at him through the air—the jewel called to him. The first night he had slept in the same room with it, he had woken up—groggy and confused—standing over Kagome's sleeping body with his claws hovering over her throat.

It terrified him.

"I'll see you soon," she promised him now, her smile quaky but sincere. "Take good care of everyone."

In the distance, Kagome walked up to their friends. Miroku and Sango had twin looks of dread on their faces, but Kaede looked as calm as always. Shippou bounded into Kagome's arms and clung there, which was okay because he was the only one who was going with her. After goodbyes were exchanged, the old woman held her car keys out.

"Thanks," Kagome said, taking them from her. With a pang, she remembered that it was the car she had driven to the insane asylum. A very small part of her felt like she was repeating history. Except this time, she knew the danger that lurked out in the shadows. Without any other words, she and Shippou got in the car. When she drove away, Kagome couldn't help but look in the rearview mirror, watching her friends grow smaller until they disappeared altogether.

"We're gonna be okay, right?" Shippou asked, carefully buckling his seatbelt and avoiding Kagome's eyes. She couldn't help but reach out and ruffle his hair.

"Of course we are."

"Anyway," the kit began as he nervously toyed with the seatbelt strap, "I'm glad we can spend some more time together. I like hanging out with Kaede, but it can be real boring."

With a laugh, Kagome eased the sedan out of the trees and back onto the old highway that the group had driven in on over a week earlier. They were officially back on the road—but this time, she was alone. Well, except for Shippou.

They were, to put it simply, bait.

After a lot of discussion, the group had come to a decision about the Shikon no Tama. On one hand, it was a huge liability. Its power, combined with Kagome's tendency to attract danger, made her the biggest walking target in the country. The box that Kagura had shipped it in had blocked its power, and the hunters had considered putting the jewel right back in and hiding it from the world.

On the other hand, the person who wanted the jewel (and Kagome) more than anyone else was Naraku. Since Naraku would never come after her directly, that meant he would send his lackeys—including, Kagome hoped, the accomplice that had helped him get out of hell. All they had to do was make Kagome available for the taking.

This, naturally, would probably backfire tremendously. But either way, Kagome was a sitting duck, and she'd decided a long time ago that she'd rather take the initiative than just wait to die.

Since no one could actually call Kagome thanks to Naraku screwing with their phones, and everyone refused to let her go out on her own, she'd taken Shippou with her. The fox demon was the weakest and therefore the most obvious choice for someone who wanted to be caught. If for some reason Inuyasha couldn't track Kagome or the jewel, he could at least track Shippou.

So, when three hours later Kagome pulled over at a rest stop to stretch her legs, she wasn't actually surprised when someone snatched her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the person they were looking for.

It was someone much, much worse.


	20. Disenchanted

The charger on my laptop broke, but I promised you guys Friday… so I'm using a tiny, unfamiliar netbook to get the update out. Typing took forever…

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Part Two: Disenchanted

* * *

><p>Back in town, miles away and hours after Kagome had been snatched, Inuyasha finished putting the last duffel bag into the back of the Hummer. He stepped away and surveyed the empty town around them. Whoever had been left had quickly cleared out, panicked calls coming in from around the country at an alarming rate.<p>

If Inuyasha had to guess, he'd say that Naraku had noticed the reappearance of the Shikon no Tama's energy and finally realized that his piece was missing. A rampaging demon freshly escaped from hell really knew how to throw a temper tantrum—and a lot of people were paying the price.

His eyes on the only road that led out of town, he asked the others, "What're the chances she's already been kidnapped?"

"Extremely high," Sango muttered. Her friends watched as the brunette crouched down to check under the vehicle for something. "Has anyone seen Kirara?"

"Not since this morning," Miroku answered, walking past and swatting her on her backside—which, in his defense, she had sticking up in the air. Before Sango even had a chance to counterattack, Inuyasha thumped his best friend on top of his head with the side of his fist.

"Behave," the half-demon growled threateningly.

Miroku just winked in an annoying way that almost covered up how nervous he'd been since Kagome had left a few hours earlier. They'd all been on edge as they waited for news. They had to keep their distance to make her convincing bait, but they needed to be ready to move as soon as they needed to.

"Are you sure we can't drop you off anywhere?" Inuyasha asked Kaede.

The old woman shook her head softly, a small smile on her face. "I think it is best that I stay here. There is a war going on, and the clinic will likely need me. It has been a long time, but my hands should still know what to do."

"What about Shippou?" Sango asked, unable to mask her concern as she now searched the backseat for the cat demon. Her movements became jerkier as her frustration—which had been steadily mounting since, oh, the centipede monster in the hospital months earlier and had spiked when Kagome volunteered to act as _bait _that afternoon—took over. Her mood was not improved by the fact that Kirara had gone missing.

"We're not keeping him," Inuyasha snapped immediately. The others shot him a look but let it slide, knowing he was struggling the most with their (harebrained, reeking of desperation, exceptionally stupid) plan. No matter how casual their conversation, they were all worried. Kagome could barely walk around the block without finding herself in serious trouble. Now they were purposefully sending her out into the world to attract demons.

"Shippou needs a family," Kaede said sagely, seeming the calmest of them all. "He needs to be around other people—people who know of demons, of course, and would encourage him to accept who he is."

"Kagome's mom would take him in," Sango suggested helpfully, not even needing to stop and think about it. Mrs. Higurashi could always be counted on to provide a loving home to those who most needed it. Sango knew that from personal experience. "Kohaku and Souta would love him—Where is she, damn it?"

"We'll find her," Miroku promised, slinging his arm around Sango's waist and giving her a reassuring squeeze. "She has to be around here somewhere."

"INUYASHAAA!"

The half-demon looked first to Sango, then to Miroku, and finally to Kaede, confirming that it hadn't been any of them who had just screamed his name. In fact, the yell had come from overhead and had sounded scarily like a small child. With a grim feeling, Inuyasha looked to the sky, already resigned for the worst.

"Sango," he stated dryly, "I just found Kirara."

Far above them, the cat demon was treading air like she was swimming. She was again the size of a lion—which was startling after the group had gotten used to her compact, kitten-like form over the past week and a half. Flames licked her heels and the tips of her tails as she flew toward them. Inuyasha had to cup his hands around his eyes to block out the sun, but finally he spotted Shippou. The kit was clinging to Kirara's neck for dear life, his eyes shut tight and his little mouth hollering.

"Inuyasha! Kaede! Inuyasha!"

Kirara touched down lightly before dipping her head, allowing Shippou to fall to the ground. He lay there for almost a full minute, his breath coming short and fast.  
>"Kagome," he wheezed.<p>

"Has been kidnapped," Inuyasha finished for him, rubbing one of his temples with the pad of his thumb. It did not stop his brewing headache. "That happened right on schedule… We've almost finished packing up the Hummer."

"Well, you did dangle a girl with great abilities but little control who was carrying a lost relic of unimaginable power out in the world with no one but a child to protect her," Miroku reminded him placidly, patting his best friend on the shoulder in a supportive kind of way. "As bait, Kagome performed magnificently."

"This _was _the plan," Sango agreed. "So, Kirara, you hid in the car earlier?" In answer, the two-tails snuggled against her owner, her massive head forcing Sango back a step. Her purr rumbled through her chest and made Sango's body vibrate head to toe. Stepping away, the demon was engulfed in fire. When the flames receded, Kirara was once again smaller than a house cat. She mewled up at Sango, who scooped her up in her arms.

Pulling himself together, Shippou sat up and looked around at all of the adults' faces. "It was just like Inuyasha said—the demon didn't even bother with me. She just grabbed Kagome and took off. I might as well have been chopped liver."

"You okay, kid?" Sango asked, crouching next to the kit to look him over quickly for any injuries.

"Yep!" he confirmed, saluting her jauntily. He had a crooked grin that made his upper lip catch on a fang, something that reminded her of Inuyasha (when the hunter was in a good mood). "Last I saw, Kagome was passed out, but she didn't look hurt. Magic, I'm guessing."

"Can you describe the demon?"

"She felt powerful. Tall, beautiful," Shippou began, recalling the kidnapper. "Long hair and old-fashioned clothes. She looked less like a demon and more like a pretty woman."

"Reminds me of someone," Sango muttered.

Even after all Kagura had done for them, Sango doubted she would ever fully trust the demoness—the image of a town full of dead, mutilated bodies hurling themselves at a building, trying to break it down to get to the defenseless students inside, would haunt her until the day she died. That said, Sango had to admit that she understood Kagura a lot better now and was thankful for the Shikon no Tama and all the information the demoness provided. Still, Kagura had seemed like a bitch.

"Let's go save Kagome. You know… again," Miroku suggested cheerfully. "Shippou, I need you to think very carefully and tell us everything that you remember from the encounter with the demon."

So, Shippou carefully described the route he and Kagome had taken as well as the location where the girl had been kidnapped. He tried to share every small thing that happened, but there really wasn't much to tell. The two (or three, counting Kirara) had stopped at a rest stop just off the highway. There had been a couple of other cars, but it was mostly deserted. Kagome had gone inside and when she came back out, a woman stepped out from around the corner, put her hand to the girl's head, and Kagome had immediately slumped into her arms.

It was then that Kirara had jumped from the backseat, scaring Shippou half to death, but by the time the kit had managed to open the sedan door, the demoness was long gone.

Within twenty minutes, the gang had everything packed in the car. Although part of Sango knew they would probably return to the town, she looked around at the handful of buildings with a faint sense of nostalgia. The hunters had only been there for a week, but a lot had happened—and a lot of discoveries had been made, from her own family history to the jewel now hanging around Kagome's neck. It did not exactly feel like home, but somehow, Sango thought visiting again sounded like a good idea.

"Be good for Kaede, Shippou," she said, crouching down in front of the child and ruffling his hair—it was a little rougher than Kagome would have done it, maybe, but the little demon still grinned up at her.

"What are you talking about? I'm coming with you!"

"Your job's done. You were our eyes and ears for when someone took the bait, and you got back here fast to tell us what happened." It may have been the others' imaginations, but Inuyasha almost sounded proud of Shippou. However, the half-demon still had his usual gruff demeanor, so any kindness the words may have had was lost. (Couldn't he have just said, 'Good job!' Miroku wondered dryly.)

"You should take him with you," Kaede reprimanded them all as she nudged the kit toward them. With her support, Shippou stood his ground against the hunters. "He cares for Kagome, and he deserves to see this plan through to the end."

After some hesitation, Miroku stepped forward. "I suppose I could take care of him until Kagome is available to do so."

When Kaede gifted him with an approving smile, he knew he'd said the right thing.

"Alright, whatever," Inuyasha caved, tugging a beat-up baseball cap low over his forehead. It had been a week since he had had to cram his ears under a hat, but there was no way to avoid it. They were heading back out into the world of humans, and Sesshoumaru would personally punish him if he stirred up any more trouble than they were already facing. "Everyone get in the car—the kid's in the back with you."

As they pulled away, Sango watched in the passenger side mirror as Kaede grew smaller and smaller before disappearing altogether. She wasn't sure when she would see the old woman again.

After Shippou directed the group to the rest stop where Kagome had been snatched, Inuyasha climbed out of the Hummer and stood there for several minutes with his eyes closed and his face tilted upward. The others watched him from the car, looking on as his brow furrowed with concentration and he shifted just slightly to catch the wind at the right angle. When he finally found Kagome's scent, they could tell by the ghost of a smile that drifted across his face. Before they could ask any questions, the half-demon took off at a run into the adjacent field, disappearing almost immediately into the tall grass.

Thankfully, he reappeared after only a few minutes. Rapping his knuckles on the windshield, he gestured for everyone to get out of the car. "Okay," he began, reaching into his jacket for his revolver without even making sure any civilians were looking. "She's not too far. On the other side of this field is an old building."

"I bet Kagome's just loving that," Sango quipped, reminding everyone of their friend's love of run-down architecture. "What is it? A factory? Farm?"

"Not sure," Inuyasha muttered, flicking his eyes to his right. "Lots of windows and chimneys, though."

"Let me guess—narrow hallways with lots of twists and turns, plus a ton of rooms," Miroku pointed out dryly. "You don't fight well when in enclosed spaces, Inuyasha."

"What can I say? Buildings just can't contain me!"

"Smartass," Sango said, punching the half-demon in the shoulder. She belatedly remembered Shippou, but the kit didn't look upset at her language. Still, she made a silent vow to watch her mouth. If the kid started repeating bad words, Kagome would kill her. "Could you tell who took Kagome by the scent?"

It was here that all good humor melted away, and Inuyasha actually avoided meeting their eyes. Sango and Miroku looked at each other, eyebrows quirked in surprise. Maybe this rescue mission wasn't going to be as easy as they hoped it to be. Really, though, their main priority was finding out information (and keeping Kagome safe, of course). If it had been too easy, they wouldn't have trusted anything they learned.

"I didn't recognize the scent; whoever the bitch is, she's old and powerful. Somehow I don't think it's Naraku's accomplice—but what do I know?"

"Not an awful lot," Miroku answered seriously, managing to dodge the punch his partner threw at him barely a second later.

"What's the plan?" Shippou asked, drawing the hunters' attention down to the ground. The fox kit was standing next to Kirara, and they looked up at the adults with wide, innocent eyes. It seemed like a million years ago that Shippou was demanding revenge for his parents' murders.

"You stay here and keep a lookout," Inuyasha said immediately, holding his phone out. "If something goes wrong, you need to call Sesshoumaru right away, okay?"

"You're leaving me behind?"

"We're leaving you with a very important job to do," Sango insisted, kneeling down and laying her hand on the boy's shoulder. "Plus, I think I will leave Kirara with you… Not only can she protect you, but she can get you out of here fast."

At this, the cat demon turned pitiful eyes on her owner and began mewling, stopping only when Sango rubbed one of her ears.

"You need to get used to fighting alongside her," Miroku pointed out in his ever-practical tone. He paused, stroking his chin with long fingers. After only a few seconds, his expression lightened. "How about I stay with Shippou and the Hummer while you two go on ahead? I mean, what are the chances it'll take all three of us to take down whoever this demoness is?"

Sango groaned. "You just jinxed us."

"Nonsense. Jinxes are only as real as werewolves," he quipped right back.

"Will you guys ever let that go?" Inuyasha demanded in an irritated voice that was only sharpened by him cracking his knuckles. He went to run his hand through his hair, a nervous habit, but it caught on his hat—they were in public, he remembered, finally looking around. Thankfully, the rest stop was fairly out of the way, and no one had bothered to look at their group too carefully. "Fine, Sango and Kirara are with me, Miroku and Shippou are on watch."

"Aye, aye, captain!" Shippou exclaimed, mock-saluting the half-demon. Inuyasha bopped him—lightly, of course—on the head.

"Watch yourself, kid."

"Be careful," Miroku told them, smiling in his usual calm manner, not allowing any nervousness to seep through. They had, he noticed, been saying that a lot lately, even more so than the average hunter.

"Same goes for you," Inuyasha answered.

Inuyasha and Sango only made it ten feet away before the brunette turned on her heel and marched back over. She gripped the hunter's arm and pulled herself up until she could press her lips to his cheek. At the last moment, Miroku turned and caught her mouth with his instead. Her first thought was to push him away and slap him for getting so close, but she squashed that down and allowed herself to push into him, to actually enjoy his warmth.

"Come back," he told her oh-so-quietly, as if there wasn't a half-demon standing a few meters away.

Words escaping her—they never had been her talent—Sango just forced herself to smile and nod. Before she could do anything foolish, she turned away and caught up with Inuyasha and Kirara.

It wasn't far before they found the building. Inuyasha's vague description had been right, and Sango couldn't tell what its purpose had been based on the outside alone. Kagome probably could have.

The half-demon reached for the door, surprised when it swung open easily. Light filtered in through the doorway, illuminating the fact that there was an inch of dust everywhere except for a set of small footprints.

"Kagome," he said under his breath, identifying them immediately.

Standing at his elbow, Sango surveyed the scene. The footsteps disappeared into the darkness. There was no sign of a struggle. All of the windows of the old building were boarded up, so very little light made it past the entranceway. Vaguely, she could see odd shapes in the distance, gutted machinery that had been abandoned. It was an old factory, she decided.

"After you," she said, gesturing inside. The hunter shot her a look before stepping inside. His heavy footfall echoed down the corridor and into the main room beyond. "Where should we start?"

"I guess we should follow the tracks," Inuyasha suggested. "Is it just me or is it weird that there is only one set of footprints?"

"Maybe she escaped?" Sango suggested, but her voice was guarded. "Can you sense the Shikon jewel?"

"It's definitely in the building, but I can't exactly pinpoint its location. With her powers, Kagome could probably see it, but all I have to go on is a weird pulling sensation."

"Hey… what's it smell like in here?"

"I'm not a bloodhound, you know," he griped. That said, he paused and sniffed the air. Almost immediately, his nose wrinkled and he sneezed violently several times in a row. The sound echoed, announcing their presence if the demoness hadn't already known they had arrived. "I can smell Kagome and someone else, but again, I can't exactly identify anything."

"It's almost neat," Sango mumbled, pushing past Inuyasha. Kirara trotted along at her heels. "Your powers, I mean."

"Yeah?" Inuyasha asked, surprised. Unlike Kagome, Sango had never really complimented his demonic half. In fact, he'd often gotten the impression she ignored the fact that he was a half-demon altogether, choosing instead to focus on him as only as a stranger—in the beginning, that is—and eventually as a hunter and ally. He wasn't sure if he liked being treated normally, or if he felt like the denial only highlighted Kagome's open acceptance of his otherworldliness.

"I said almost," Sango reminded him with a wink. It was a cocky gesture that reminded him of Miroku. Clearly, the girl needed to stop hanging out with his partner so much. (Except they looked so freaking happy together, even back before Miroku stopped treating Sango like just another girl and Sango, in turn, stopped pretending to ignore his open appreciation of her.)

Remembering her flashlight, Sango fished it out of her jacket pocket and clicked it on. The weak beam highlighted the footsteps, and she was struck by how creepy they looked. Kagome was used to seeing buildings untouched for years, but the shadowy, grimy floor and creaking walls gave Sango the creeps. And just why did it look like Kagome voluntarily walked down the corridor? Her steps were steady and sure. There were no dragging or scuffling marks in the dust, which meant she hadn't been dragged or forced.

"I wish Shippou had more information for us," Sango admitted unwillingly. "I feel like we're walking in blind. Between Kagura actually being a good guy, getting handed the jewel—which may or may not be our salvation—and there being some secret accomplice out there, I feel like more questions have been raised than answered lately."

"Plus, the thing about your family."

"And the thing about you," Sango shot back right away, feeling miffed by his reminder before she could stop herself.

Inuyasha paused in the doorway of what might have once been a control room. There were computer screens along the wall, most of which were smashed. The gauges, buttons, and levers looked like something out of a science-fiction movie. He took a second with his face turned away before glancing at Sango. She was facing the other way with the flashlight, giving him a chance to look at her without her being able to see his expression. "What 'thing' about me?"

"You know, the Goshinki thing?"

"Goshinki?" Inuyasha echoed, feeling stupid. It was not a feeling he liked. "That big thug from weeks ago?"

"Yeah. While I was knocked out, something happened. Hasn't that been bugging you?"

Wracking his brain, Inuyasha thought back to the fight. The one where the car had been thrown, Sango's life had been put in danger, and he—

He'd been knocked out like a weakling. When he'd woken up, there was destruction everywhere, but Miroku and Kagome were safe (if a little banged up). He remembered the confusion in those first few minutes, scrambling to remember what had happened. How had the two defeated such a powerful demon without his help? There was even a moment, so very brief, where Kagome had looked at him with an expression that rent his heart in two. But then she'd kissed him and assured him and everything was fine.

"If they want to tell us what happened, they would just tell us," he said finally, obviously uncomfortable. Honestly, he _did_want to know, but at the same time… the question that had hung in Kagome's eyes made him wonder if it was such a good idea.

"It's been calm since then."

"Except for the revelation about my family," Sango reminded him, her voice bitter.

"Hey, would it really be so bad if it turned out you really did come from a long line of hunters?" Inuyasha snapped—not unkindly, just impatiently. Sango shrugged off his tone, used to it. "I seem to remember you saying something about always being meant for something like this, about how you never really fit in anywhere else. Kagome's always talking about how well you settled into the life."

"Hey, _you _don't have to tell your little brother that he's been lied to his whole life."

"Look, I'm sure your dad just thought he was doing you a favor by keeping you away from demons. Sometimes fathers do stupid—"

"Shh," Sango said, cutting him off by raising her hand in front of his face. "Do you hear that?"

He did.

Above them, there was the sound of someone shuffling across the floor, followed by a soft thump. A shiver clawed its way down Inuyasha's spine as he remembered the first time he met Kagome, back in the old insane asylum. Even the musty smell of air thick with dust was the same. Just like then, there was the straining desire to save the petite, soft-looking girl from harm. This time, however, she _mattered_.

"Upstairs?"

"Upstairs," Sango agreed. "Kirara, lead the way."

With the faintest sizzling sound, the two-tail was engulfed by flames. The brightness was so sudden, so sharp that both hunters had to cover their eyes and turn away. When they looked back, Kirara was once again in her larger form. The flames at her ankles and the tips of her tails lit the hallway, miraculously not setting anything on fire. With a rumble in her throat, the cat turned and thudded away from them into the darkness.

The two followed close behind, stopping only when Kirara paused at the top of the stairs. She looked to an open doorway, her hackles raised.

After glancing at one another, Inuyasha and Sango pushed past the cat demon and stepped into the room—Inuyasha with his shotgun raised, Sango with her two pistols pointed at the ground ahead of her. The window was uncovered, and late afternoon light flooded the room. What was waiting on the other side made Inuyasha's heart thud in his chest.

In the middle of the otherwise empty room sat a single chair. It was old and wooden, a cobweb stretching between the legs. Sitting in the chair, her back to them, was a very familiar figure.

"Kagome?" Sango asked, lowering her weapons completely and taking a step inside. The other woman didn't move. "Hey, are you okay?"

Inuyasha shrugged when Sango shot him a look, one that was almost accusatory.

Approaching slowly, Inuyasha let his shotgun hang at his side. He brushed his fingertips against her shoulder once, twice, and then gripped her upper arm with his hand. "Hey," he said, the fact that she hadn't turned at the sound of Sango's voice making him tense. "Kagome?"

After a few seconds, she finally tilted her head to look over her shoulder. Her eyes focused first on Inuyasha's hand before following up his arm to his face, her eyes oddly vacant. Thankfully, she gave her head a little shake, a smile quirking the corners of her mouth.

"Hi," she said, her voice oddly hoarse and strained. Once again, her eyes returned to Inuyasha's hand, and her smile seemed a little stiff. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're here to save you," Sango explained, trying to catch Inuyasha's eyes. When the half-demon refused to look at her, the brunette turned her attention back to her best friend. With the light from the window, she noted that Kagome seemed fine physically. There was a smudge of dirt near her collar and a small red mark on her forehead as if she'd bumped into something, but other than that, the girl looked good for someone who had been kidnapped. "Where's the demon?"

"Demon?" Kagome echoed, her brow furrowed. "What demon? This place is empty."

Finally meeting Sango's eyes, Inuyasha shook his head slowly, his eyes narrowed. There was definitely someone else in the building, but he still couldn't get a good read on the situation. "Up you go," he said, pulling Kagome to her feet. She stumbled but braced herself against his chest, her hands knotting his shirt. For a moment, she kept her eyes down, her cheek pressed against his body.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," she insisted, pushing away and looking up at him with a lopsided smile. Her voice was still husky and there was an unfamiliar distance in her eyes, but it was definitely her smile. "There's no demon," she repeated, taking a step toward the door. "I just needed to take a break, you know?"

Sango and Inuyasha watched as she stepped into the hallway, immediately surrounded and hidden by the darkness. The sound of her footsteps as she walked away was steady, and it registered in their minds that she should have had difficulty without any light to see by. Unless, that is, she was familiar with the layout of the building.

"Are you coming?" she called out. The hoarseness of her voice coming out of the darkness was almost unrecognizable.

"After you," Inuyasha muttered, repeating Sango's words from earlier. The woman left the room, Kirara at her side. The cat demon seemed stiff, and a thunderous growl rumbled in her chest. Cautiously, Sango stroked the two-tails on her back, wishing she'd calm down. She felt tense and worried enough as it was.

Inuyasha walked just behind her, his shotgun once again raised. He'd knocked off his hat, letting his ears swivel around to try to catch some sound of an attack before it came. The scent of the demoness was everywhere, but there was no way to trace it back to its source. Even Kagome smelled off, somehow, as if her own scent was masked by that of her kidnapper's.

"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked her now, trying not to picture her just sitting in that empty room. It didn't sit right with him.

"I'm not sure," Kagome answered. She took the stairs carefully, one step at a time, her back to them. "The rest stop," she decided finally. After a moment, she asked, "Where's the little boy?"

"Shippou?" Sango clarified, wondering why her best friend hadn't said his name. Was there another little boy? Another victim?

"Yes," Kagome confirmed. "Shippou."

"He's back at the car with Miroku."

Sango knew what was coming even before it happened. "Miroku?" Kagome repeated the hunter's name, her voice stumbling over the word like it was unfamiliar to her tongue, as if she hadn't said it a thousand times over the past half a year.

Below them, the main room of the factory opened up. Even without a light source, the mangled heap of discarded machinery stood out, darker than the walls. Dust was kicked up by their feet, and it drifted between the two women like fog.

"Yeah, Miroku," Sango answered vaguely, not exactly sure how to describe him. Even though the girl's movements were steady and sure, a question hung in every word she spoke. Behind Sango, Inuyasha had shut down, his face troubled as if he was working through a very difficult problem in his head.

The expectation of a fight hung all around them, but the group made it to the base of the stairs and back to the corridor without any problems. The door leading outside was just ahead, and the sunlight was now a murky orange. Afternoon was quickly turning to evening.

Less than five feet away from the exit, Kagome pulled up short. Sango nearly stumbled into her back, and Kirara hissed—the brunette quickly shushed her, nerves on edge.

"Kagome?"

The girl turned around. Lit up by the flashlight, her face looked troubled, and she lifted her hand toward her friends. "I don't—I don't feel so good," she said suddenly, her expression collapsing with tears. "I need you to hold me."

Automatically, Inuyasha stepped forward. It was clear by his expression that he was grasping at this request, realizing that she had been in shock from whatever had happened earlier that day. Quickly, he folded her into his arms, tucking her head beneath his chin as he squeezed her tight. Her hands were caught between them, her palms pressed flat against his chest.

"You're safe now," he mumbled into her hair, nuzzling the spot where her neck met her shoulder, where her heartbeat fluttered just beneath her skin. "This was stupid—_I _was stupid. I shouldn't have put you through this just to get some answers about Naraku."

"—Sorry," she gasped, burying her face into his jacket. "I'm so sorry."

"For what? Kagome, this is my fault."

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," she repeated, and now he could feel her tears dampening the cotton of his shirt. "Inuyasha, I'm sorry."

"Inuyasha—" Sango began, stepping forward, sensing that something wasn't quite right.

Before she could do anything, however, there was a flash of purple light. Something big and heavy collided with Sango, and when the world stopped spinning, she realized Inuyasha was collapsed half on top of her. Blood trickled down his forehead, and his shirt—or what was left of it—was smoking. His skin beneath was charred. The smell of burnt flesh heavy in her nostrils, Sango pushed the half-demon off of her, struggling to take stock of the situation.

Kagome stood in the same spot, tears still streaming down her face. With her hands on his chest, she had been in the perfect position to attack Inuyasha with a full assault using her ancestral priestess powers. Now, the girl raised her hands, and Sango realized with a start that the girl had managed to get her hands on the shotgun after the explosion. A pale lavender light swirled around the muzzle of the gun, and Sango's mind churned as she struggled to understand what was happening.

Kagome had just attacked them. _Kagome_.

Having recovered from the blast, Kirara lunged at Kagome, slamming into her and forcing the girl to drop the gun. Before the cat demon could recover, Kagome reached out and grabbed the ruff of her neck and shocked her with a bolt of purple light. With a whimper, Kirara fell to the ground. Too weak to maintain her larger form, she was surrounded by flames before shifting back to a kitten. After a heart-pounding second, Sango realized with relief that she was still breathing.

"Inuyasha, wake up!" Sango shouted, shoving the half-demon's shoulder. Kagome took a step in their direction, but at least she no longer had a magic-infused shotgun.

"I have to kill him," Kagome explained, her voice choked with tears. With a flash of realization, Sango realized why her voice had been so hoarse—it was from screaming and crying, possibly for hours while she waited for the group to come to her rescue, to set this horrible plan in motion.

"That makes no sense! Why would you ever kill Inuyasha?"

"I have to kill him because I love him," the girl said. There were tear tracks down her cheeks, and her eyes wavered between anguished and blank. "I love him most, so I have to kill him."

"Kagome, _snap out of it_."

"Get out of my way!" Kagome screamed, launching herself at her best friend. Her fingers blazed with the lavender light, but there was no sizzle upon contact with Sango's skin because Sango, of course, was human.

"You're going to have to try harder than that," Sango admonished. Hoping Kagome would forgive her later, she grabbed her by the shoulders and brought her knee into her gut. With a gasp, Kagome bent double. As they both tried to catch their breath, a chain slipped out from under the collar of Kagome's shirt. The Shikon glittered in the dying light, and it was like a storm raged inside.

The jewel was an extension of its owner, Kaede had explained earlier, when Kagura's gift had been first revealed to the group.

"You're new at this, hunter," someone commented from the doorway.

Startled, Sango looked up and recognized the demoness based on Shippou's description. She really was beautiful, with inky black hair that brushed against the ground. Her eyes reminded Sango, somehow, of murder. And stars.

_Concussion_, Sango thought blearily, remembering the explosion of light earlier as Kagome attacked Inuyasha. It was only a matter of time before she became dizzy and weak, and Kagome was able to overcome her. Sango found it hard to focus on anything other than the pounding pain at her temple and how Kagome was already recovering.

"So, what's your plan?" Sango demanded, her tongue feeling thick and heavy in her mouth. Inuyasha had hit her harder than she realized. "What did you do—possess her?"

"I infected her," the woman explained, examining her fingernails with a haughty sniff that really was reminiscent of Kagura.

"With what?"

"Evil," she answered in an exasperated tone that made it clear that she thought the answer was obvious."It was evil. One of her deepest desires is to be stronger, so I let her. Naturally, that power came with a price."

"That's a load of crap. Kagome couldn't be evil even if—well, anything really. It's impossible."

Still, though, the jewel, the Shikon no Tama, the extension of its owner was pulsing with a dark purple, like a bruise. It reminded Sango of Goshinki, Naraku's overzealous lackey. That in turn reminded her of the car accident and, unfortunately, the head injury that had followed. Two concussions within a single month—that couldn't be good. Forcing herself to keep it together, Sango ignored the dark swirl of color inside the jewel.

"What do you want? Did Naraku send you?"

"That _scum_?" the woman asked, a low chuckle escaping her throat. Her beautiful eyes narrowed as she tilted her head. "He is nothing—a weakling. I am older and far superior. I am a _god_, an immortal heavenly being. I am Kaguya, Princess of the Heavens."

"If you're so great, then why is Kagome still alive? Why does she still have the jewel?"

"Minor setback," she explained, coming to stand behind Kagome. She reached down and ran her hand through the girl's hair, tangling her fingers in the strands. Kagome flinched but didn't pull away. "The moment she murders that lover of hers, all will be fixed."

"You're corrupting her to corrupt the jewel," Sango accused. The edges of her vision were fuzzy, but she felt movement by her ankle. Inuyasha was stirring. "It was too pure—you couldn't even touch it, could you?"

"You are very curious, aren't you?" Kaguya asked with a pleased smile. "All you want is to know the truth—about me, about your family, about the half-demon there."

"How do you know that?"

"I can see it," the demoness explained patiently. Her grip on Kagome's hair tightened. "This one here… She needed more power because all she wants is to help others. Killing someone she treasures would be irreversible; she would never recover. As you said, once she is corrupt, the jewel will be corrupt. When night falls, I will be strong enough to use it to freeze time, to create an eternal night."

"Why?" Sango demanded. The only positive thing she could think of was that at least Kaguya wasn't eating people. This thought made her smile, but it was a woozy smile, reminding her that she was in way over her head. If Kagome struck her again, she wasn't sure she could fight back with the strength she needed to survive.

"Who doesn't want to rule the world?"

"Normal people," the brunette shot back.

"You are trying to distract me," Kaguya said. "It won't work."

"It seems to have been working just fine. How did you find Kagome? Why her?"

"I was trapped in a mirror. Just having the jewel nearby, even incomplete, was enough to free me."

Startled into laughing, Sango slumped against the wall. She was at her breaking point, and staying conscious was actually painful. Now, she could feel the trickle of blood streaming down the side of her face, soaking into her jacket. She had completely underestimated her injuries. When Inuyasha had knocked into her, she must have slammed her head into the concrete ground. Speaking of the half-demon…

"Kagome was kidnapped at the rest stop—so you were trapped in a bathroom mirror?"

"Silence!" Kaguya snapped with a scowl.

"A fitting prison for the 'Princess of the Heavens,' eh?"

With a hand gesture, Kaguya once again set Kagome on Sango. It was impossible to move in time, so Sango merely closed her eyes and waited for the impact. At the last moment, there was a rush of air, and when she opened her eyes, Inuyasha was standing in front of her.

In his arms, he held tightly Kagome to his burned and tattered chest. Sango had successfully stolen enough time for him to regain consciousness. No longer able to stay awake, she allowed darkness to overcome her.

"Inuyasha, I'm sorry," Kagome blubbered into his chest. This time, he restrained her by encircling her wrists with his claws and kept her palms pointed to either side of his body. Frustrated, he shook her a little, and she peered up at him with wide, teary blue eyes. "I'm sor—!"

"Shut up," he interrupted, his voice gruff but quiet. "You're not going to do anything."

"Silly boy," Kaguya chuckled loudly. She was standing close enough that she could reach out and trail the tip of her fingernail along his jawline. Honestly, the demoness would just get rid of them all herself, but she needed Kagome to do it, she needed to girl to corrupt herself. "Kagome is going to kill you."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," the hunter snapped dismissively.

"You want that jewel just as badly as I do," she countered. "I can see the truth of it. But could you eventouch it? It's too pure—she's obviously too good for you."

"Probably," he agreed easily, stunning the demoness into silence. "So I want the jewel—what else can you see? Can you see that I want_ her _more than I want some stone?"

"Inuyasha," Kagome mumbled. Her eyes were vacant again, and he wasn't entirely sure she understood what was happening around her—she always looked so fragile, he thought, even standing there trying to kill him.

"It's sweet," Kaguya cooed into his ear. He twitched away from her, a sour expression on his face. Inuyasha couldn't fight the demoness and restrain Kagome at the same time; his mind was racing as he tried to work out some kind of plan. He was coming up empty. "It's sweet," Kaguya said again, a dark smile twitching her lips, "that the only name she remembers is yours. Just let her kill you. It will save you a lot of pain and suffering in the future."

"Because she's too good for me?"

"Way too good," Kaguya agreed with a wink. "Look at the jewel around her neck—look at how pink and beautiful it is, mirroring her soul."

And Inuyasha did look, and he saw how the jewel was pink and pure and full of goodness—and he saw that Kaguya had apparently missed the fact that it was no longer swirling with Kagome's inner turmoil as she fought against the possession, the _infection _of evil that Kaguya had tried to force on her.

"Kagome," he said softly.

"She can't really hear you," Kaguya pointed out with a gleeful chuckle.

He wasn't so sure.

"Kagome," he said again, swallowing thickly, reminding himself that it had been his shitty plan to use her as bait that had gotten her into this situation in the first place. Really, he owed it to her to come up with a plan to fix everything. "Hey, I… I love you," he announced honestly, awkwardly.

Then he released her wrists.

For a moment, her eyes remained vacant—but then they flared with an anguish and then a fury, and she reached for him with her hands glowing with a spiritual power that could harm his demon half just as easily as it could heal his human one.

But her hands missed his throat, instead coming to rest behind his back as she threw herself at him, her lips forced on his in a way that didn't quite seem loving but definitely wasn't murderous anymore. It was like she was using the kiss to knock some sense into herself—literally, it turns out, as she then knocked her forehead against his. When she pulled away, her eyes were clear and aware and very _Kagome_ again.

It had only taken two seconds, and in that time, Kaguya must have realized that her hold over the girl had broken. She was halfway out the door when Kagome came for her, tackling the demoness from behind with another bright flash of lavender light. When the glow faded, Kagome was on her knees in the grass, gasping for breath, and Kaguya was gone.

"Did you kill her?" Inuyasha asked, sniffing the air as he stumbled out of the doorway to stand at her side.

"No," Kagome answered. "She fled before I could." She looked up at him, sucking in a breath when she saw the burns on his chest. "Oh, my god—Inuyasha, what happened?"

"What—?" he echoed, looking down at his singed, tattered shirt. "Uh, you did this, remember?"

"I—I _what_?" she asked, her voice tremulous. "What happened? The last thing I remember is pulling in at a rest stop—Shippou! Is he okay? And where's Sango? Miroku?"

Suddenly understanding why people were driven to drinking during times of great trouble, Inuyasha tried to sort through all her questions and all his thoughts, all at once. "You don't remember anything?" he asked cautiously. "Nothing from the fight?"

"I remember kissing you," Kagome responded slowly, a blush flaring on her cheeks. She waved her embarrassment away impatiently, noting absentmindedly that her throat was sore and her voice hoarse. "Kissing you _badly_, I mean. Somehow I knew to turn around and go after—who was that?"

"Kaguya," he answered, his heart heavy. She didn't remember, he realized. He had finally told her he loved her and—damn it, no, he refused to take that as a sign. There was a time and a place for everything, and if nothing else, this gave him a second chance to express himself. Better, he hoped. Hopefully it would be at a time when no one was trying to kill someone else.

"Kaguya," Kagome echoed hollowly, just like earlier when she could only parrot back everyone's name as they were spoken. All except Inuyasha's, which she had remembered, even as she begged for forgiveness as she tried to take his life. "You mean the celestial princess from the fairy tale?"

"Uh," Inuyasha answered, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to remember whatever legend she was talking about. _Please_, he thought, _don't make this mean more research_. "Is the fairy tale about a blood-thirsty demon who wanted to use the Shikon jewel to rule the night for all time?"

"…No."

"Then maybe it should be rewritten," he mumbled, holding his hand out to help her up. She slipped her fingers into his, and he squeezed them reassuringly. It made him feel warm and fuzzy inside until he remembered a similar interaction during the Goshinki incident, the one that Sango had brought up earlier.

They all had secrets now. Maybe, someday, everyone would come clean with whatever they were hiding from each other.


	21. Fear

So, I kind of left the country for over a month, which made it a bit hard to update. I then graduated from university and got a full-time job. So, you know, I'm kind of exhausted and stuff. I apologize for the ridiculously long, unannounced hiatus!

I really hope y'all enjoy this chapter. I wrote it little by little since August.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

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><p>Opacity<p>

Fear

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><p>For the first time in a long time, Miroku was driving.<p>

He rubbed his bleary eyes with the thumb and forefinger of one hand while his other guided the steering wheel. It had only been a couple of days since their last big demon fight, but the stress and lack of sleep made it feel like it had been months.

The girls were asleep in the backseat, leaning against one other with Shippou nestled between them. In the two days since Kagome's kidnapping and rescue, she had been sluggish and easily confused. There had been three times so far when she suddenly stopped talking or moving and looked off into the distance, her eyes no longer focused. All three times, she snapped to attention the moment someone touched her.

When the others had returned from the old factory after the fight with Kaguya, Miroku had immediately known something had gone wrong—Kagome looked exhausted and guilty, Sango was in bad shape, and Inuyasha wouldn't look anyone in the eye. They had told him what happened, but Miroku still felt like he was missing something crucial. Both Inuyasha and Sango had been knocked out (but at different times), and Kagome's memory was more than a little fuzzy. _Something_ had happened.

Well, 'something' always happened when it came to them.

With a sigh, Miroku checked the rearview mirror, but all was quiet in the backseat. Next to him, Inuyasha napped restlessly. Every few minutes, he would snarl or flinch as if he was fighting monsters even in his dreams.

Their group was falling apart.

Okay, sure, they had never gotten along better—Sango returned Miroku's romantic gestures without the hesitation or suspicion she used to have; Kagome and Inuyasha were constantly in contact wifth one another, always brushing hands or settling against each other as if it were completely natural; and both sets of best friends had yet to grow tired of _always_ being together. There was trust now. They worked as a unit now.

But…

But Kagome and Miroku still hadn't told anyone about Inuyasha turning into a full demon that one time, and it was starting to eat away at the part of Miroku that was decent—Inuyasha was his best friend and Sango was basically his girlfriend, and this was an important piece of information that could potentially—well—okay, Miroku had to face it, demon Inuyasha was a serious problem. Ignoring it was not going to make it go away.

Meanwhile, Naraku was hiding somewhere while orchestrating mass murder, Kaguya had gotten away, and there was still a mysterious accomplice out there with the last piece of the Shikon no Tama. Plus, Sesshoumaru was sleeping with their informant, they had a child traveling with them, and Kagome was suffering from some kind of post traumatic stress disorder and/or psychosis.

And, damn it, Miroku just wanted a nice vacation away from it all. Preferably one with a beach and Sango in a bikini, but he would take just about anything.

It could have been minutes later (but was probably more like hours) when Miroku next checked on the girls in the backseat. When he flicked his eyes up to the rearview mirror, he was startled to find Kagome's big blue ones looking back at him in the reflection. They were murky with sleep but more aware than they'd been for days.

"Hi," he said, his voice hushed since the other three were still fast asleep.

"Hi," she mumbled before yawning, her jaw creaking with it. "How close are we?"

"A few more hours," he promised, breaking eye contact to focus on the road. "You got that jewel put away?"

"Yep," she answered, a strangeness in her voice at the mention of the Shikon no Tama—she sounded both affectionate and irritated. "It's in that weird box that Kagura sent it in. Can you sense it at all?"

Even though he was not a demon, Miroku had gone through enough meditative training and demon hunting to know when there was something supernatural around. It helped when he was performing exorcisms—well, real ones. The ones he performed for extra cash were about as legitimate as his driver's license. (Hunters didn't exactly go to the DMV.)

"Not a thing," he answered after taking the time to concentrate on his surroundings. Cursed and powerful objects disturbed the air in a way that Miroku couldn't exactly describe. He was sure Inuyasha would say there was a smell or a heat or something that gave the jewel away, but for Miroku the Shikon no Tama felt more like a—almost like a shift in reality or space. It just _felt_ like there was something there that didn't exactly belong. Like a presence. Like another person, almost. Or a monster.

"Good." There was a long stretch of silence as Kagome looked out the window, watching the scenery blur by. "So… Is the plan to just take the jewel out whenever we want to use it as bait and hope that eventually Naraku himself or one of his lackeys comes after me?"

"Pretty much."

"Good plan," she muttered, a wry smile twisting her face.

"Got a better one?"

"…No." Without missing a beat, she changed the topic, and Miroku could hear the frustration in her voice. "Naraku should have made his move back in Rochester, back when he first escaped from hell, instead of just dropping me safe and sound in Kikyou's apartment after wiping my memories."

Although it wasn't exactly an uplifting thought, Miroku said honestly, "He must want a challenge. Maybe he's waiting for you to get stronger."

"Arrogant son of a—"

Before she could finish her (frustrated and confused) exclamation, Kagome was cut off by Shippou. He surprised them by piping up, his voice hoarse with sleep. "I bet it was that Kagura lady who saved you or told Naraku to leave you alone."

Stunned by his childish insight (and realizing that they should really stop discussing these things in front of him), Kagome ruffled Shippou's hair. "That could be it," she said. When Miroku glanced at her in the rearview mirror with upturned eyebrows, she smiled at the hunter. "Think about it. Kagura probably talked him into thinking it would be a ton of fun to kill me once I'm, you know, Super Priestess or whatever. I'm going to owe her so much when this is all over."

She didn't come right out and say it, but Kagome already had an idea of how she could repay the demoness. The general idea of it, at least, if not the details. First, she would forgive Kagura for the massacre that had happened in her hometown. Second, she would find a way to free her from Naraku's control.

As Kagome fell into an uneasy silence in the backseat, Miroku looked at the odometer on his dashboard and realized just how close they were to their destination. Well, actually, how close they were to the stop he had decided they needed to make en route to their destination.

Conveniently, the city where Kagome and Sango used to live was on the way from the hunter's town to Mrs. Higurashi's house, where they would be dropping Shippou off. This was convenient only because that meant the gang could visit the old asylum and try to rustle up some clues.

"Think we'll ever get our phones—"

The way Kagome bit off her own question made Miroku wince, knowing that she had looked out the window while talking. He carefully didn't look in the rearview mirror because he didn't want to see the look on her face as she realized where they were going. It had been a long time and the road was pretty ordinary, but he was sure the asylum would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life. It had been the turning point in her life, the day everything she knew was redefined. Miroku knew that feeling—he remembered every single moment of the day he had first learned of demons, right down to the smell of blood when the monster had killed the man who had raised him. Sango had been eased into this life while Inuyasha and Shippou had never known anything else, but the two of them, Kagome and Miroku, had been tossed headfirst into the nightmare.

There was still a long stretch of woods between them and the asylum, but they could already see the turn-of-the-century roof peeking over the treetops. Without another word, Kagome prodded Sango awake as Miroku pinched Inuyasha's arm until the half-demon sat up with a jolt. The moment the half-demon's eyes landed on the building in the distance, his already dark look turned darker.

Clearly, no one was happy with Miroku's surprise.

Unfortunately, when they got there, there wasn't a whole lot of new information on Naraku or his allies. The asylum was just as decrepit and creepy, set back from the road and surrounded by gnarled trees. Now, though, the front door was hanging off its hinges. (Inuyasha blamed Sesshoumaru for that; he was certain his older brother had chosen to kick the door in rather than get his precious hands dirty by touching the doorknob.) The layer of dust was thick but disturbed. There had been a lot of traffic in the past several months.

"I bet it's a mecca for demons now," Miroku guessed, examining a fresh set of gouges in the foyer left by something with really big claws.

"What do you mean?" Sango asked, hanging back and eyeing the asylum with distrust. She had never seen it before, and it was much worse than she had imagined. A chill ran down her spine as if someone had brushed an icy finger across her back. She shivered, frowned, and then clutched Kirara closer to her chest like a lifeline.

"Naraku was just a spirit—a powerful one but still pretty common. He went through a transformation in hell, but he will always be tied to this place," the hunter explained, running his palm along the door frame. He suddenly flinched and pulled away, staring down at a splinter. "This building has to be a great source of power now; demons and monsters will flock here, hoping for the same—uh—good luck."

"It's a dump," Inuyasha countered, kicking a wall roughly with his steel-toed boot. The plaster crumbled around his foot. "I say we burn it down."

"Yeah… and start a forest fire," Kagome joked dryly. She slipped her fingers into the crook of his elbow and tugged him away from the now-buckled wall. With her free hand, she brushed her fingertips against his cheek, trying to smooth out his worry. "We could use it as bait. Maybe Naraku or his people will come back here."

The half-demon made a noise in his throat that she couldn't quite decipher. "Well, we've got time to think about it. We still have several hours to go before we can drop the kid off," he answered finally, but it was clear to everyone that his burst of anger had faded at Kagome's touch.

"Do I really have to?"

"Yes," Kagome answered Shippou immediately before ruffling his hair in an easy, affectionate way. "You'll like Mama, I promise."

The light around them, broken from filtering through treetops, bled red with the setting sun.

"Let's get out of here before nightfall," Sango suggested, already turning for the exit. She hoped the others couldn't see how uncomfortable the asylum made her. It was embarrassing that after all they had been through an empty building was the thing that actually scared her. But, it was more than that—the asylum was a mystery, an open-ended question linked to Naraku. It represented everything that was wrong with their lives. "I say we stay the night in the city and go to Kagome's mom's house in the morning."

"Too bad Kaede's still with the hunters and not back home; I guess we'll have to find a hotel," Kagome lamented. As she followed her best friend out of the asylum, she threaded her fingers with Inuyasha's and pulled him along in her wake. He stumbled after her, much to Shippou and Miroku's amusement.

The group disappeared into the woods, the asylum empty and foreboding behind them.

* * *

><p>"It's not exactly the Hilton," Kagome mumbled, dropping a duffle bag on top of one of the beds in the girls' room. She ignored the sound of her pistol clanking against something else inside. "At least it's not another motel."<p>

"It's gross," Shippou announced honestly, grimacing at a questionable stain in the carpet. Overhead, the ceiling and crown moldings were cracked, and carved angels—in disrepair and with flaking paint—leered down at them. The walls were yellowed with age, and the floorboards creaked with every other step.

Sango moved aside the curtains and peered at the street eight stories down. As she watched, most people walked right past the shabby hotel entrance. One person, however, broke away from the crowd and stepped toward the front of the building. It was hard to see much from that distance, but her best guess was that it was a tall man with dark hair. Even as she peeked between the curtains, the person looked up, the pale oval of his face pointed right in her direction. Unnerved, Sango let the curtain drop and stepped back.

"What's up?" Kagome asked, rubbing at the corner of her eye with her fist. She yawned wide enough that her jaw cracked. In her pink sweater and sock-covered feet, she looked like a child.

"Take a nap, Sleeping Beauty," Sango suggested, giving her best friend's shoulder a squeeze. She dodged Kagome's question since, really, _nothing_ had happened. It had just been a coincidence. Eight stories was a long way up—the man probably couldn't even see her looking out the window. "I think I'm going to look around a little. Shippou, want to come with?"

"Nah," he mumbled, mimicking Kagome's yawn. His big, dewy eyes blinked up at the women. "I'll nap some, too."

"Suit yourselves," the brunette muttered, more than ready to take advantage of being out of the car. "I have my key, so lock the door behind me."

"Hey, be quiet when you come back. We'll probably be out for the night," Kagome reminded her, already shimmying out of her jeans. They fell in a pile around her feet before she kicked them out of the way. She'd deal with laundry in the morning—hopefully there was a washer and dryer somewhere in the hotel for guests.

Sango smothered a laugh, thinking that even pantsless, Kagome still managed to look innocent. "When are we going to switch up these bogus sleeping arrangements? Poor Inuyasha, trapped in a room with that pervert while you prance around half-naked."

"Oh, be quiet," Kagome grumbled, collapsing on top of the bed. She didn't even bother to pull the covers over herself. "There's a child in the room."

"I don't mind if you're not wearing pants," Shippou told Kagome seriously before climbing up onto the bed (with some difficulty; he was barely two feet tall after all) and curled up on top of a pillow.

Unable to help herself, Sango howled with laughter as she left the room. Once she was in the hallway, she tried the doorknob. Satisfied that Kagome was locked safe and sound inside, Sango walked away.

* * *

><p>Shippou woke up sometime later that evening. With the curtains pulled, the hotel room was pitch black. Even with his heightened senses, it took the kit a full minute for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He lay very still, comforted by the sound of Kagome's gentle and steady breathing next to him. For a moment—just a moment—he closed his eyes and pretended that it was his mother or father sleeping next to him. That moment passed quickly.<p>

"Kagome?" Shippou whispered, prodding her with his small hand. He was so tiny that he could easily have curled up in the space between her face and where her arm bent over the pillow. The woman murmured something in her sleep and rolled over, burrowing deeper into her pillow.

With a frown, the fox hoisted himself out of bed and fell to the floor with a soft, "Oof!" Thanks to his reflexes, he landed on his feet. The other bed was empty; Sango hadn't returned yet. Kirara, however, rose from where she had been curled up asleep by the door, waiting for her master to come back.

Shippou dragged a chair over to the door and hopped up, not letting his height be a disadvantage. He opened the door and jumped through the doorway as Kirara slipped into the hallway behind him. He heard the dry click as the lock triggered behind them—he hoped he ran into Sango somewhere or Kagome answered if he knocked. Inuyasha and Miroku's room was across the hall anyway, so it didn't even register that he might have trouble getting back in.

The hallway was deserted. The hotel had been almost empty when they checked in, but now it seemed cut off from the rest of the world. Shippou felt a shiver run down his spine, but he shook the eerie feeling off. It wasn't like he couldn't defend himself, especially with Kirara by his side. Plus, there was an entire team of monster hunters within shouting distance.

The lights along the wall were spaced far apart, and the light bulbs were dim. Several of them flickered, throwing shadows across the faded wallpaper. Factor in the cobwebs, the creaking floorboards somewhere else in the building, and the emptiness, and Shippou almost felt afraid.

But that moment was when he saw Kagome standing at the other end of the hallway.

Not only did Shippou know for a fact that Kagome was asleep in the room behind him, but he also knew it was very strange that she was standing in a rundown hotel in early spring wearing a bright yellow sundress and no shoes.

Weirder still, Shippou followed her as she rounded the corner with a giggle. Only part of him wondered why. With a growl, Kirara followed behind him, her fangs bared.

* * *

><p>There was nothing, really, that woke Kagome up.<p>

One moment she was fast asleep, dreamless, and the next, her eyes flew open as her heart raced with panic. For several long seconds, she clung to her pillow, her ears straining for some sound or sign that something was wrong. Instead, there was nothing.

Her chest aching, Kagome sat up. The night pressed against her eyes, so dark that the blackness looked blood red instead.

Part of her wanted to call out for Sango or Shippou, but the complete silence in the room told her that she was alone. No matter how strong Kagome had grown over the past several months, the encounter with Kaguya had set her back in self-confidence and bravery.

Because, even if no one else was saying it, Kagome knew they were all worried about how big of a scar the possession had left on her. Kaguya was still out there—did she still have control over Kagome; was it only lying dormant?

Slowly, Kagome swung her legs over the side of the bed and placed her feet on the hardwood floor. Once she was standing, it took a minute of feeling around to find her jeans and another minute to find her boots, both of which she slipped on quickly, thankful that she was still wearing socks. She didn't even bother to turn on the light as she moved out the door and into the hallway, a little confused about why there was a chair in her way that hadn't been there before. Only after she patted down her pockets and found the second room key did she let the door shut behind her.

It was gloomy, but at least the hallway had some lights. In the distance, she could hear people moving, their shifting weight causing the floor to creak both above and below where she stood. Instead of comforting her, knowing that there were other people roaming the halls but not knowing who or where or why spooked her.

Her heartbeat picked up again, her mouth open as she breathed in and out small puffs of air. As she watched, her breaths hung in the air, visible like she was standing outside in the middle of winter. Unnerved, she forced herself to breathe slowly through her nose instead.

The first thing she did was knock on the boys' door, dancing from foot to foot in the hall. After two tries and no response, she knew she was out of luck. They were either dead asleep or out wandering, just like Sango. Officially alone—which had so far proven to be bad for her health—Kagome chewed on her bottom lip. She could explore the hotel, hoping she'd run into one of her friends and stay safe in the meantime, or she could head back to the room and settle down for the night.

Before she could really decide one way or the other, she caught sight of some movement from the corner of her eye, and she whirled around to find that she was no longer alone in the hallway. Less than twenty feet away stood another woman, one Kagome recognized. It was so unexpected—and, okay, impossible—that the girl could actually feel her jaw drop in surprise. But, there was no mistaking it. She knew those serious gray eyes, set in a beautiful but expressionless face.

"Kikyou?" she whispered, watching her breath rise to the ceiling in an icy puff of air. In answer, the lights mounted on the walls flickered and then sputtered out, temporarily throwing the hallway into darkness before they flared bright again.

Thankfully, the figure of the woman hadn't moved closer or disappeared or anything, which would have given Kagome a heart attack. Instead, the corners of Kikyou's mouth lifted in a reserved smile, and she beckoned the girl toward her.

"Kagome," she said, her voice echoing eerily in the enclosed space. "Come with me. I need to show you something."

"Okay," the girl agreed warily. She felt something tug at her consciousness, and she wondered, once again, how much control she had over her own mind. Was this Kaguya's doing? No, it didn't feel the same as before. But, somehow, there was definitely something trying to persuade her, to push her into following Kikyou.

There were three things that Kagome needed to find out. One, how was Kikyou even there? Kagome had—well, she wasn't exactly sure what she had done to Kikyou, but it had definitely ended the zombie's second life. Two, what on earth could Kikyou possibly need to show her in some hotel that was, as far as Kagome knew, completely unrelated to the dead woman? Finally, three, what had happened to her friends?

Following Kikyou seemed like the best way to find answers to these questions.

* * *

><p>At that very moment, Inuyasha was locked in the bathroom of his own hotel room.<p>

Vaguely, he thought he heard someone knocking, but he wasn't sure. Since their arrival in the city, he had been in a haze. His head felt thick, like his thoughts were molten and sluggish. His throat, mouth, and fingers ached, and his skin was flushed. He hadn't even noticed when Miroku had left the room, saying something about checking on the girls.

That had to have been hours ago.

With each passing minute, his hands and head throbbed harder. It was like fire was running through his veins, making it impossible to even think.

His eyes burning, Inuyasha reached up and grabbed the edge of the sink. The ceramic cracked in his grip, splintering under his elongated nails. He hauled himself upright, leaning his shoulder heavily against the wall as he used one hand to turn on the cold water. He needed to splash his face—to get rid of the heat that burned his eyes, his skin, his teeth.

When he finally forced his eyes to the mirror, he staggered backward. In his rush to get away from his own reflection, he tripped into the claw foot bathtub—but the impact barely registered. To keep from screaming, he bit into his own arm. His blood, so very hot, filled his mouth, and he tried not to choke on it as he smothered one shout after another.

There had been a monster looking out of that mirror, one with Inuyasha's nose and his hair and his ears, but everything else was distorted and dark.

He looked like the things he killed.

With a strangled yell, he lurched out of the bathtub and pulled the door open, ripping it off its hinges and splintering the frame. And, suddenly, there was Kagome, standing next to the bed—looking so soft and vulnerable, her expression torn between horror and surprise at his appearance.

Before she could say a word—before he could do anything to her—he threw himself sideways out the window. The glass shattered around him, but he couldn't feel the weightlessness as he plummeted eight stories to the ground. All he could see was Kagome's horrified face.

All he could taste was blood.

* * *

><p>With an exasperated sigh, Miroku leaned against the wall. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, trying to massage away his brewing headache. It was becoming a gesture he was very familiar with. At the edge of his mind, he could feel something powerful prodding, wanting to force its way through and take his thoughts for a joyride.<p>

Thankfully, years of meditation and spiritual training had given him the strength to resist the mental hijacking. Still, it gave him a headache.

He had spent the last three hours trying to navigate the hotel. Every time he opened a door or turned a corner, he ended up in an identical hallway. Miroku had seen four Sangos, two Inuyashas, and one Kagome so far. At first, they had been mysterious and aloof, trying to lure him into following them. Eventually, they broke into frantic gestures and pleading. But Miroku resisted the temptation to go—refused to let magic take over. Because it was a trap.

Obviously.

Something was separating their group, leading them somewhere that would probably end with their deaths. Whatever this something was, it could take the form of the people known to its victims. It could read emotion and reflect fear. It wasn't a monster or demon—it felt different.

"Crap," he muttered as yet another Sango flickered into existence next to him and tugged at his sleeve.

He needed to save the others, but he couldn't find his way back.

Which was, he thought, probably his own barrier of fear that he needed to break through to defeat the illusion. Even without giving up control, he had already been tricked.

* * *

><p>"Sango—"<p>

"No," she snapped childishly, doubling her pace. She careened around a corner—only to find herself in an identical hallway. She could hear his footsteps behind her. He was keeping his distance, but not by much. He was a foot taller than her, which meant he could easily keep up as she tried to escape.

His voice pleading, he tried again, "Sango, please, we need to talk."

The woman hunched her shoulders, _this_ close to clapping her hands over her ears like a little girl just to block out his words. Instead, she curled her fingers into fists and shoved them into her pockets. She should have known—back when she was in the hotel room and that man was looking up at her from the street. He had seen her. He had hunted her down.

There was no way this was happening, no way it was even real. She had to have fallen asleep or something. Because he was dead. A year earlier, she would have given anything to have seen him again—his stern features, his intimidating stature, his rumbling, booming voice. He had loomed large in her memories, which made him all the _less_ intimidating in person. Especially now that she knew he wasn't the impressing, amazing man she had always thought him to be.

"Sango," he began, heaving a great sigh. Now he sounded so weary and exhausted. Just like he had in life. "You are acting like a child."

"Shut up!" She refused to look over her shoulder, to let him catch up.

Her father was back from the dead.

If he had even died in the first place, she thought bitterly. Maybe he had faked his own death all those years ago. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised. All her life, he had lied to her, covered up their family history and her heritage.

What else had he hidden from her?

So, instead of facing her ghosts—literally, it seemed—Sango charged ahead, cursing the obviously haunted hotel. Where were the others? Were they all trapped in their own mazes, facing something just like this? Or was it just her, dealing with her dead father who (and she never thought she would say this) she would rather had just stayed dead.

"Young lady—"

And this—this, of all things—was what finally got her to turn around. Sango spun on her heel, the sudden change in direction and momentum causing her ponytail to smack the wall. Her fingernails bit into the palm of her hand, but the sharp pain did little to bring her back to her senses.

"You don't get to do this," she said to the ghost—her father. "This is not happening because you're _dead_. You lied to me. You lied to Kohaku." To her infinite horror, her voice actually cracked when she said her brother's name. She imagined his young freckled face, the expression he would have when (if) she ever told him that everything they had ever believed about their father was a lie. "I'm glad you're dead."

The man, ghost, her father (whatever he was) actually took a step back, as if she had slapped him. "You don't mean that."

"Really? Because do you know what I've been thinking lately? If you hadn't held back, if you had been honest with me, if you had taught me all the things you knew about demon hunting, maybe my life wouldn't be such a mess right now. Kagome's my best friend, and half the time, I can't do anything but stand around and watch her get attacked over and over again. Everyone else here, even Shippou, inherited something from their family to make them stronger—but you've left me empty handed. A well-trained demon hunter with centuries of knowledge would have been perfect in these kinds of situations, but instead they only have me. And I'm starting to worry that that's not good enough."

She meant every word. She hadn't really given it much thought, other than a silent struggle to appear fine in front of the others, but all of the 'what if's had been circling her head, pulling her deeper into a sense of self-doubt and helplessness.

But now that she knew what was wrong, she knew how to deal with it.

It was time to train harder, to learn more, to discover as much about her family as she could so that it would stop hanging over her head. Weak was the one thing Sango did not do well.

So she squared her shoulders and walked right through her father—

Who wasn't her father at all, just an illusion that turned to mist at her touch.

And when she reached the end of the hallway and turned the corner, it was finally a different hallway, and she could see her hotel door once again.

But there was already somebody there.

Once again, it was a familiar face—another tall man with dark hair. And once again, the sight of him made her heart pound. This time, though, it was definitely for different reasons than when her fake-father had ambushed her. Sango stumbled to a stop, putting her hand to her chest as though that would actually help her interpret what she was feeling.

"Miroku?" she asked, half fearing the hunter was another illusion. "Is that really you?"

Which is when he whirled on her.

"For fuck's sake—not another one!"

This surprised her more than if he had physically struck her. "Excuse me?" she demanded sharply, her voice hoarse from yelling at her 'father' only moments earlier.

Quicker than her eye could follow, Miroku pulled a gun from a hidden holster and thrust it in her direction, his finger hovering over the trigger. He was obviously frustrated—his heavy eyebrows were drawn in tight over his eyes, which looked stormier than she had ever seen them. Coupled with the tense set of his shoulders and his angry voice, Sango actually took a step back. For the first time ever, it struck her—

Miroku was a hunter.

He had fought, killed, lied, struggled, survived for years in the dangerous world under which she had been suffocating after only a few months.

And for her—for all of them—he had always offered a calm, good-humored, wise facade, even though he had been thrust into that world alone with nothing but a lot of practice at lying and some spiritual mediation under his belt. But under all that flirting and joking was a very dangerous man. Who was pointing a gun at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sango shouted, lifting her hands in front of her body like they could actually stop a bullet. "Hang on a second, Miroku, it's me."

"Oh, they're all you," he retorted, jerking the pistol around in a nonchalant manner that made her heart leap to her throat. Oh god, he'd lost it.

"What do you mean all—Miroku, it's me. Sango. Don't tell me the ghosts this crazy place has been making you face were all me? Because I had to face my father, who I currently hate since I can't reconcile my past memories of him with what I've learned, so if you're seeing me, then that must mean—"

The words just wouldn't stop. It was like verbal vomit, just pouring out and baring her soul to this man—the man who might possibly hate her, if he was seeing illusions of her running around just as she had seen her deadbeat dad.

"The problem isn't that I hate you—or Sango, whoever—the problem is that I lo—really care about you," he corrected her, the anger starting to leach out of his voice, replaced by exhaustion. She could only imagine how she looked, probably pale and trembling and exhausted herself after fighting her own (inner) demons. "Just like I care about Inuyasha and Kagome."

"If you're looking for the kind of relationship that involves four people, I'm not gonna lie… I'm out."

"…Sango?"

Running a tired hand through her hair, she took a step forward, her eyes still on the gun. "Yeah."

"For real?"

"Yeah," she repeated. "Please tell me you've figured out this nuthouse."

Finally, Miroku lowered his gun. In seconds, he seemed to deflate, melting back into the amiable man she had gotten to know over the past few months. Even as she watched, he plastered a friendly smile on his face. It only looked a little fake. "Naturally, this hotel is showing us illusions—manifestations of our fears. We must either conquer those fears or be led to our deaths by them."

"Oh, naturally," Sango repeated, dryly. "So, your fear was…?"

"Not being able to get to the people I care about in time, to save them. I'm sure it's a residual fear from my childhood, from the death of my parents and guardian," he explained easily, slipping the gun back into its holster as if he hadn't just threatened to shoot her in the face.

"That's surprisingly sweet."

"My dear, you are only just beginning to understand the very depths of my—"

"Oh, shut up," she said, cupping his jaw and dragging him down to her level for a too aggressive kiss that left them both gasping for air. It ended with him staring longingly at her, so she shifted her eyes away, afraid she'd give in and be distracted from their real goal. "Seen the others yet?"

"Just illusions of them. They're probably still trapped in their own fears."

With a sigh, Sango pressed her back to the wall, realizing that they were standing in front of her hotel room. Somehow, they had managed to break free. "I'm guessing this isn't a monster or a demon. How do we save everyone?"

"We don't," Miroku responded immediately. When she sent him a sharp look, he smiled apologetically at her. "Unfortunately, I think it's up to them to save themselves this time."

* * *

><p>When Inuyasha woke up, his first thought was that he didn't hurt all that much considering he'd flung himself headfirst through an eighth story window. His second thought, unsurprisingly, was about Kagome.<p>

He shot straight up and immediately clapped his hands to his skull as his vision swam. His entire body was sore, and his blood still felt strangely sluggish in his veins. He wondered, vaguely, if he'd been poisoned. But underneath all the aching and confusion, he felt a strange power lurking, as if once the pain faded, he'd be stronger—invincible even. All Inuyasha had to do was bear this temporary suffering, and then he could become—

What, exactly? That monster in the mirror? Could he live with that? Could Kagome?

This line of questioning brought him back to the biggest question of all—Where _was_ Kagome? Was she okay? Would she even let him touch her after she'd seen him that way?

His headache worsening by the second, Inuyasha looked around, realizing that against all reasoning, he was sitting in the middle of the hotel hallway. Someone could have rescued him. Or, more likely, he was trapped in some kind of a pocket dimension that—Well, Miroku would have been able to explain it. All Inuyasha knew was that he was hurt, he'd scared Kagome, and the lights were flickering. The last part normally meant there was a spirit around.

"Suck it up," he growled at himself as he climbed to his feet, wobbling a little.

These were the worst kinds of hunts. Not only had he not been expecting one (it seemed like the monsters found them more often than they found the monsters these days), but there was no obvious bad guy to fight. It was all psychological and mind tricks and shit like that. Things Miroku was good at. And just Inuyasha's luck, the human hunter was nowhere to be found.

"Kagome?" he called out, quietly at first. Hearing how soft his voice was, he took a deep breath and bellowed, "Kagome!"

Nothing.

Had it even been her he'd seen earlier? His mind had been pretty messed up…

There were no scents to follow. The hotel smelt like an old—and very empty—building.

Before he could get much farther, pain shot through him. Inuyasha bent double, clawing at his own stomach like he could break open his body and dig the pain out. His claws and fangs tore through his skin and gums, feeling heavy and foreign. But now, now he could smell her—

Kagome.

* * *

><p>Scrambling after 'Kagome,' Shippou tried to catch his breath and sort through his thoughts at the same time. Kirara trotted along beside him obediently, the fur along her spine sticking up in tufts as a growl reverberated in her tiny chest. The woman moved quickly ahead of them, pausing occasionally to look over her shoulder to make sure they were still behind her. They had been passing through identical hallway after identical hallway for ages.<p>

There were times when he could hear people moving around somewhere else in the hotel. At one point, he'd heard distant growling, and it had sounded an awful lot like a grown demon, the kind his parents had always kept him away from—uncivilized beasts who listened only to their bloodlust. It had made his heart skip a beat, and the image of his father protecting their family from the Thunder Brothers left him with buckling knees. There was a reason why humans told scary stories about demons.

After another ten minutes of aimless wandering, Shippou realized that the woman—who may or may not be the real Kagome—was merely killing time.

Which meant something was going to happen.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), he didn't have to wait much longer.

As Shippou rounded yet another corner, he found the Kagome he had been following had disappeared, but another Kagome had taken her place. This one looked a lot more like his Kagome. She wasn't giggling and wearing a sundress; instead, she looked frazzled and rumpled from sleep, her sweater twisted out of shape and a piece of her hair sticking up in the back.

"Kagome?" he called out, keeping his distance in case the hotel had thrown another surprise his way. To keep his hands from trembling, he curled his hands into fists and shoved them deep into his pockets. Easily, he could hear Inuyasha mocking him in his head—the way the half-demon teased him about being small and weak as a weird way to boost the fox's self-esteem. Whenever the older demon had made Shippou sound like a weakling, it made Shippou want to prove him wrong.

Unsurprisingly, Kagome ignored his timid voice. She was focused on someone else, someone Shippou could barely see from where he stood. It looked like another woman of similar height, stature, and coloring as Kagome. Her voice was deeper, though, all calm and smooth as she talked about things that didn't make sense to the kit.

"—suffering for months," he heard the woman say. Shippou hated her on sight, realizing how she made Kagome feel uncomfortable and scared. "You should have helped me, and yet you cast me into the depths of hell."

Stubbornly, Kagome shook her head. The movement tossed her messy hair over her shoulder, exposing a sliver of her face to Shippou. He saw tear tracks on her cheeks, which made him hate this stranger even more.

"You were already suffering," Kagome pointed out, her voice strained. Shippou couldn't tell if she believed her own words or not. "Kikyou, you told me yourself that you wanted—that you needed to move on because even death was better than being a, well, zombie… And for the record, you cast me into the depths of hell first."

Ah, Shippou thought. They were talking about that time Naraku escaped from hell by using the gateway that had been opened when Kikyou, a zombie who had been manipulated by a power-zealous witch, tried to get rid of Kagome by banishing her to hell. Kikyou was Kaede's sister. Really, it all sounded very complicated to him, but he did know one thing—Kagome had tried to make everything right by helping Kikyou move on.

So how was Kikyou standing in this hallway accusing Kagome of doing something wrong?

"Kagome," Shippou tried again, raising his voice. "I don't think that's really that Kikyou lady."

"I know," she surprised him by answering, not even turning around.

"Oh," he answered slowly. Then, unable to hide his confusion, he asked, "Then why are you arguing with her?"

"Kikyou or not, she's right. I didn't know what I was doing when I 'took care' of that zombie. I still don't know what I'm doing—I could have sent her somewhere even worse. I should have done more research; I should have waited until after I had learned more or been trained by someone. I mean, I couldn't even fend off Kaguya last week. How could I even think I could save Kikyou? How can I save anyone? I'm… I'm useless."

Child or not, hearing Kagome talk like that broke Shippou's heart. "Hang on a second," he began, concerned that she still wouldn't turn and look at him, even though they had both established that 'Kikyou' was only an illusion. Maybe she was dangerous; Kirara was hissing at her. "Everyone feels that way. I bet even Inuyasha feels that way sometimes. Miroku and Sango, too. We all want to help people, but we just—we just can't sometimes. We do our best. And we fail. But we keep trying."

The reminder of what happened to his parents must have snapped Kagome out of whatever pity-party she was letting herself indulge in because she flinched and finally turned to look at him.

"It's why we're the good guys, right?" Shippou asked.

With a startled laugh, Kagome opened her mouth to respond—

And it was in that split second that a fully demonized Inuyasha launched himself at (and through) 'Kikyou,' startling both Kagome and Shippou so much that they screamed. Shippou could tell immediately that something was wrong. Inuyasha smelled like blood and power, and his snarling was muffled by his overly elongated fangs. But, even as Kirara hissed and growled and Shippou tried to summon fox fire in the palms of his hands, Kagome nervously laughed and took a step toward the hunter.

Her form flickering from the sudden collision with the demon, 'Kikyou' sent one last sad (yet somehow pleased) smile at Shippou and then promptly blinked out of existence. That was what the illusions had all been working toward, getting Shippou, Kirara, and Kagome in the same room as a demon Inuyasha. Shippou understood just how deadly their plan was when the demon whirled on them, his red and feral eyes highlighted by his blood-soaked shirt.

"Kagome," the kit warned nervously, closing the gap between them and tugging on her sweater. "Kagome, I don't think that's such a good—"

"Don't be silly, Shippou," she said, her voice strained. Her hands were shaking, betraying her own fear. "It's just Inuyasha."

With a burst of flames, Kirara emerged in her full form. The demon cat snarled at Inuyasha, shielding Shippou and Kagome with her own body. She snapped at him, her fangs piercing the air just inches from his claws. The two snarled and growled at one another, throwing around threats in a language that Shippou could no longer understand.

"What's wrong with him?" Shippou demanded, holding tight to Kagome's ankle.

"It's fine," Kagome insisted. "I can snap him out of this."

"Don't tell me this isn't the first time he's gone full demon!"

"Second time, as far as I know. It was awhile ago." There was a brief pause when she refused to meet the kit's eyes. "He got hurt and… He doesn't know, Shippou. Miroku and I managed to snap him out of it. I can do it again."

"These are the kinds of secrets that get people killed!" Shippou accused. "How are you going to fix this?"

Inuyasha took a step forward, his eyes shifting from Kirara to Shippou to Kagome, as if assessing who was the biggest threat. One of his fangs sliced through his bottom lip, but he merely brushed at his face with the back of his arm, smearing more blood onto his sleeve. This was worse than the time before, back with Goshinki. This time, it looked like he had fought the change, had hurt himself trying to stay himself.

Kagome's heart clenched.

There was no Miroku to pistol-whip the sense back into him. "He won't hurt us," Kagome said, but even she could hear her voice shake with uncertainty. "He won't hurt me. I just have to remind him of who I am."

"How? With what? A kiss? This isn't a fairy tale, Kagome. I wouldn't put my face anywhere near that," the kit hissed, gesturing at the demon's bloody, snarling mouth. For a panicked moment, Shippou buried his face into her jeans, trying to shut everything out. He hated that hotel. He hated those stupid 'Kagome' and 'Kikyou' illusions. He couldn't watch Kagome die, be ripped apart while he just stood there. Logically, he knew it would hurt Inuyasha just as much to do it as it would hurt Shippou to watch. Kagome was their most important person. But logic wasn't going to fix things. Inuyasha wasn't himself, he was just a stupid—

"He's a demon!" Shippou realized, pulling away from Kagome just enough to look up at her face. "You fight demons."

"No, Shippou, he's Inuyasha," she countered desperately. Whatever tough facade she had been trying to put on was crumbling and fast. The only thing standing between her and certain death was Kirara, and the cat demon wasn't going to keep Inuyasha at bay for much longer. He was obviously out for blood. If nothing else, she hoped she could stall him long enough for Shippou to get away. Surely Kirara could—

"No, he's not Inuyasha. I mean, not really, not right now he isn't. He's a full demon; there's no human half to protect him anymore."

"Shippou, we already established this, I can't just go around zapping people and hoping I'm doing some good. I have no idea what I'm really doing, what if I hurt him?" Even as she said this, Inuyasha bent double, digging his claws into his own skin, tearing at something they couldn't see, clawing at his own temples, tears leaking out of his blood-red eyes.

"It's because you're too afraid," Shippou insisted, punching her calf with his tiny fist until she looked down at him. They were wasting time; Inuyasha couldn't fight himself off for much longer. "You're too afraid of yourself, of hurting others. You're too afraid of _trying_. Kagome, even if you don't believe in yourself, I believe in you. Isn't that enough? You can do this. Just try. Please, please just try."

So she closed her eyes. She forgot about Kaguya and the mind control and the terrible things she had done while possessed. She forgot about Naraku and his accomplices. She forgot about all the dead and missing hunters, the innocent bystanders, the demons ravaging their country. She even forgot about herself. And instead she focused on Shippou. Poor, little, orphan Shippou who had watched his parents slaughtered, who had stood up to Sesshoumaru to ask for help for revenge, who had bonded with Kagome and Inuyasha in the darkest of times, who had looked so happy to see her again when they reunited in the hunters' town, who had acted as bait with her.

And she felt it. For the first time in a long time, she felt an inner warmth and glow, the lavender light that told her she was meant for more than wearing ugly nursing shoes and snapping photos in abandoned buildings all by herself. The light that told her that, hell, maybe she _was_ one of the good guys.

Before she could lose that feeling again, still with her eyes closed, she reached out until she felt her fingertips brush against Inuyasha's chest. She remembered the way he had smiled at her when they got in the car that morning. She remembered how all it took was her touch to brush away his worry and anger when they were in the asylum.

He didn't exactly stand still and let her help him. No, he reached up and wrapped his hand around her wrist, dug in with his claws until she bled. But still, it was like he held back. He didn't strike her. He didn't attack. He let her wrap her little lavender glow around him, let it smooth away his anger and bloodlust, let her remind him that he was actually just a little bit human.

And when they both opened their eyes, they found that they were smiling at one another with relief.

Then Inuyasha, finally himself, collapsed at her feet.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure we can't kill it?" Sango demanded an hour later, glaring at the hotel entrance.<p>

Miroku stepped back to admire his handiwork, a little sign reading 'Condemned' that he had strung across the front door. He and Inuyasha had boarded up the entrance after the group confirmed that there were no other guests besides themselves. Everything had been an illusion since the beginning, from the hotel clerk to the bellboy.

"Yes, I'm sure," he answered the brunette, tugging the end of her ponytail affectionately. "It's not a demon or a monster, just a spirit. The Spirit of Mount Azusa, if I'm not mistaken."

"So, you seriously saw that we were staying at _Azusa Hotel_ and didn't put two and two together," Sango muttered, swatting his hand away. "Or did you think it would be fun to watch us all face our fears?"

"For the record, I don't know absolutely everything, all of the time," the hunter replied with a frown. "I mean, I know _almost_ everything, but even I can't be expected to hear the name of a hotel and know immediately that it's the home of a spirit that will try to lure us to our deaths using our greatest fears."

With a sigh, Sango leaned against him, folding into his side as he brought his arm up around her shoulders. "Don't worry, I plan on brushing up on all this demonology and lore. Hopefully next time, between the two of us, we can figure out what's going on before we get trapped in an endless maze of identical corridors and dead fathers."

"If nothing else, at least we know more about each other now. And ourselves," Inuyasha grumbled as he slammed the trunk shut on the Hummer. Their bags were loaded inside, and he was wearing a clean shirt. He was exhausted and sore, but at least he was back to himself. Miroku had explained the fear thing to them as soon as he and Sango had stumbled across them. Sango was afraid of being weak; Miroku was afraid of not being able to save those he cared about; Shippou was afraid of seeing the ones he loved die and leave him all alone again; Kagome had been afraid of herself, was still afraid of not being able to save everyone through some fault of her own; and Inuyasha was afraid of turning into the very thing he hunted.

"No more secrets," Kagome promised, wrapping her arms around his waist and nuzzling his shoulder. "Next time one of us turns into a horrific demon that could tear everyone apart, we tell each other immediately. Deal?"

"Deal," Miroku agreed, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Anyone else have any secrets they need to get out in the open?" He looked to his best friend first, remember the way the half-demon had avoided everyone's eyes after coming back from rescuing Kagome. There was still something there that needed to be said.

However, Inuyasha turned his eyes skyward, refusing to meet anyone's gazes. "Nope," he said, "I'm good. For now, anyway."

Shippou raised his hand in the air, waving it around until he got everyone's attention. "I don't want to go to Kagome's mom's house; I want to stay with you guys!"

"After we get rid of Naraku," Inuyasha responded. "_Maybe_."

"You're such a bully," the kit grumbled with a very Inuyasha-like scowl. "I expect you to take care of this stupid Naraku situation soon, before I get bored," he told them all very seriously. When the adults just shuffled their feet, he worried about how they'd do without him there to watch their backs. He shared a worried look with Kirara, who just purred and rubbed against his side in reassurance. At least one of them knew what she was doing. "Alright, everyone get in the car. It's time to get this show on the road!"


	22. Inheritance

I hereby promise that I will finish this story, even if it kills me. Thankfully, there are only a handful of chapters left. My goal is to finish Opacity by the end of 2013.

Thank you for all the support during my unexpected hiatus!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Inheritance

* * *

><p>"Kagome! Hang on!"<p>

"I'm trying!" she shouted, her voice anxious as she scrambled for a better grip. She dug into the brick with her fingernails, scraping her hands raw as she did so, and felt like her arms were about to be wrenched from their sockets. She was dangling eleven stories over the concrete street below.

Behind her, the battle raged. An enormous figure reared upward, as tall as the surrounding downtown buildings. The demon's sudden movement sent a gust of wind in Kagome's direction, and she swayed—dislodging one of her hands from the roof's edge.

"_INUYASHA__!_" she screamed. Her vision blurred with tears. She had already been trembling, but now her entire body shook with the effort of holding on.

"I'm coming, Kagome!" It was Sango who answered, but her voice was faint, far off, too far off to make it in time. Kagome was sure her best friend—riding astride Kirara like some kind of warrior demon slayer—was trying her best to get to her.

But it was too late.

Her hand slipped and suddenly she was weightless, the wind whistling in her ears and her hair streaming upward as she plummeted.

It wasn't scary.

She recalled riding the rollercoaster with Souta and Kohaku two summers earlier at an amusement park. How her stomach had jumped to her throat as they shot downward, and she was too afraid and too delighted to shout.

The moment stretched on forever, and she realized that she wasn't even screaming as she fell to her death, the fight continuing all around her.

* * *

><p><em>48 hours earlier…<em>

The payphone rang the second Inuyasha left the roadside diner. He paused for a moment, the shrill noise annoying even through his baseball cap, and then he started to walk away. The phone stopped ringing before starting up again almost immediately, sounding even louder and more insistent than before, like it was trying to get his attention.

There was no way—

Or was there?

He glanced around the empty parking lot. It was three in the morning, and the only other customer in the diner was still in there (a trucker falling asleep over his long-cold coffee and half-eaten pie). Why would someone—anyone—call _this_ payphone in the middle of the night? There was a gas station across the street, a seedy motel half a mile away where the others were asleep, and then this twenty-four hour roadside diner. That was it for thirty miles. Who the hell was the caller trying to reach?

But, well, life had been very strange lately. Why _wouldn't _someone know to call him in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night on an ancient payphone?

With a resigned sigh, he shuffled over to the booth and picked up the receiver.

"Yes?" he asked, gruffly.

"Little brother," a familiar voice greeted. It was cold and deep and made Inuyasha angry even though the man hadn't said anything offensive (yet).

"Sesshoumaru," the hunter acknowledged. He leaned against the disgusting phone booth wall, looking relaxed even though this phone call made him tense. "Are you here? _Watching _me? Or is this another situation where you LoJacked our car? Like a stalker."

"Keeping tabs on one's employees is the sign of an excellent employer," Sesshoumaru responded. His voice was even and emotionless, but Inuyasha knew his half-brother was cracking a joke. "I tried your cell phone. It is still out of commission. Do I need to purchase new cell phones for your little _team_?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes, knowing that if he made any sound of annoyance at all, Sesshoumaru would hear and get all pissy about it. "It's not like you're sending us on missions or anything. Our top priority is Naraku, so… yeah, you're not exactly important right now."

"Just the man funding your little operation. Not to mention that I am losing my hunters at an accelerated rate due to a loose end _you _left while in the field."

"Wasn't my fault. I think it was just shitty bad luck."

"I blame the girl."

"Of course you do," the hunter retorted. He drew in a sharp breath, willing himself to hold onto his temper. Whenever he and Sesshoumaru got into an argument, it took them hours to find their way back to the point. "Why are you calling?"

"I have received some rather… _alarming_ reports."

"That doesn't sound good," Inuyasha muttered, already imagining what else could go wrong. Between Naraku, his mystery partner, and the still-at-large Kaguya, they had enough bad guys to keep them busy for months. "Can't you give this job to one of your other—and I'm using the following term lightly—_employees_?"

"Not this one. This is a family problem."

"You're a family problem," Inuyasha quipped immediately, unable to help himself.

"Inuyasha."

"Sesshoumaru."

"For once may we have a civil conversation?"

In answer, Inuyasha hung up the phone. There was a very brief pause before it rang again. The half-demon silently counted to ten, reigning in his anger. He had _just_ had a good cup of coffee and some very excellent pie. He had been in a good mood five minutes ago. When he picked up the receiver this time, Inuyasha made sure he was in full control of his temper.

"_What_?"

(Okay, maybe not _full _control.)

"Ryūkotsusei has been sighted in Bridgeport," Sesshoumaru continued as though his little brother hadn't just thrown a temper tantrum.

"Ryūkotsusei, who?"

"Father's arch-nemesis."

"Oh, right. Shit," Inuyasha responded sourly. "I remember him. What do you expect me to do about it?"

"You have Father's sword, therefore it is _your _responsibility to kill Ryūkotsusei."

"Bullshit," the hunter argued. "You have Father's other sword. You also inherited his fucking job. And, like I said earlier, Naraku is at the top of my list. _You_ take out the bad guy and save everyone's asses."

"Stop being a child."

"Stop being an assface."

There was a very quiet sound from Sesshoumaru, and Inuyasha wondered if he'd made his brother laugh. "Your attitude has become very inconvenient lately, Inuyasha. I blame the girl."

"I blame _your _girl."

"I do not have a 'girl,'" the demon lord replied sharply.

"Tall, leggy, a complete bitch."

"Kagura is not mine by choice," Sesshoumaru answered with a disdainful sniff. "This conversation is boring me. Take care of Ryūkotsusei, or I will take care of you."

There was a click followed by the dial tone.

The hunter angrily slammed down the receiver for the second time. Stepping away from the phone booth, Inuyasha hunched further into his jacket. It was spring, but it was chilly in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the motel wasn't far from the diner. He half-jogged back to their room knowing that his irritation meant he wouldn't be able to fall asleep for hours. Once inside, he was surprised to find Kagome awake and sitting next to the window, her cheek pressed against the glass and her eyes vacant.

For the span of a single heartbeat, he worried Kaguya's mind control had taken over again. Fortunately, however, when Kagome heard his footsteps, she glanced at him with fully-present eyes.

"Can't sleep?" Inuyasha asked, his voice quiet as he shut the door behind himself.

"I miss Shippou," Kagome confided, her voice equally low. She glanced at Sango and Miroku, both of whom were asleep fully dressed on top of the bed. They snored peacefully, unaware of the conversation going on over their heads. After dealing with the Spirit of Azusa, none of them had wanted to stop at a hotel after they dropped Shippou off with Kagome's mother. They had taken turns driving through the night while everyone else dozed restlessly in the car. It hadn't helped their already sour moods.

Inuyasha thought about what Kagome had said and realized that, although he'd never admit it, he missed the fox demon, too.

Back at the hotel, Shippou had held his ground and helped Kagome see reason in a way that she couldn't all by herself. He'd also kept Inuyasha from doing something he'd have regretted for the rest of his short, miserable life—if he had ever managed to change back from a monster, that is.

The biggest shock for Inuyasha hadn't been that he could turn into a full demon or that both his girlfriend and his best friend had already known, but that Kagome hadn't been afraid of him afterward. When he'd turned back (or she'd turned him back; the details were still a little fuzzy), she'd grabbed on and held him tight, as if _he_'d been the one in danger. Or as if he'd returned to her from somewhere very far away.

_Not a monster, not a monster, not a monster_ had been on repeat in his head ever since.

"Don't tell the kid, but that was brave of him. He could've—he _should_ have—run and saved himself."

"You wouldn't have hurt him," Kagome said quickly, sternly, confidently.

It was a nice sentiment, but Inuyasha wasn't so sure. 'Monster' or not, he hadn't been in full control that night in the hotel. As much as the half-demon wanted to believe he wouldn't have hurt Shippou or Kagome, he knew he could have and that he probably _would_ have if the kid hadn't found a way to make Kagome stop him.

"Hey," she whispered, reaching over and tugging on his sleeve as if she could read his mind. "Stop thinking about it. It's over now."

"It could happen again."

"It won't."

He grumbled low in his throat and refused to meet her eyes. "I was thinking, if I could use that power, somehow, and turn it against Naraku—"

"No way," Kagome cut him off, tugging on his sleeve a little less sweetly and a little more aggressively. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're stupid and reckless enough when it comes to Naraku. _Making _you go full demon sounds even dumber than using me as bait."

"Thank goodness we found each other," he teased, but his tone was much less sarcastic than he was going for. To cover his ass, he added, "I'm not sure who else would put up with all our stupidity."

"We can be pretty foolish," she agreed, leaning her head against his side and closing her eyes. He could tell she was falling asleep. Absentmindedly, he brought one hand up to her hair and gently tucked it behind her ear, his fingers lingering for several seconds, marveling at how soft her hair was, how gentle her breaths were… Had she been waiting up for him?

"Time for bed," he announced, letting his hand drop to her shoulder instead. "Need help getting there?"

"I wish we were alone," she mumbled sleepily, burrowing her face deeper into his coat.

With a regretful sigh, he slipped one arm under her knees and the other behind her shoulders and picked her up. He deposited her on top of the second bed and made sure the pillow was positioned just right under her head—she had already fallen asleep. Before he could think of doing anything (stroking her cheek and kissing her hair both came to mind) he felt eyes on him. When he looked up, Kirara was watching him knowingly.

"Don't worry, I'm sleeping on the floor," he muttered, pleased when he didn't sound as frustrated as he felt.

* * *

><p>"So what's on the agenda today?" Sango asked, sipping her coffee. She then took a large bite of coconut cream pie. Oh, how far she and Kagome had fallen since they'd first joined the hunters. They were eating pie from a diner.<p>

For _breakfast_.

"Yeah, about that," Inuyasha started in a tone that made them all wary, his eyes avoiding their own. "I kind of heard from Sesshoumaru last night."

Miroku leaned back in the booth with his fingers intertwined in front of him, the picture of deep thought. "That," he said, "is never a good way to follow up the question, 'What's on today's agenda?'"

"He asked us—_ordered _us, really—to go after Ryūkotsusei. As soon as possible."

"Who's Ryūkotsusei?" the girls asked simultaneously.

The half-demon scratched the back of his neck, still avoiding their eyes. "My father's arch-nemesis?" It was a question, not a statement, which they took to mean that that was all the information he wanted to share.

When the girls turned from Inuyasha to Miroku, they found the human hunter with one hand covering his eyes and a crazed smile on his face. "Ryūkotsusei," he repeated. "_Ryūkotsusei_. Inuyasha, your own father couldn't kill Ryūkotsusei. Look, I'm an optimist at heart, but even I have to admit that your brother just signed our death warrants."

"Wait," Kagome said, holding up her hands to pause the conversation. "Is Ryūkotsusei better or worse than Naraku?"

"Worse," Inuyasha admitted.

Miroku uncovered his eyes before snapping them on his best friend, revealing the most serious look Kagome had ever seen on the man. "If I remember the story correctly—and I always do—it took your father years to seal that demon after countless battles. He couldn't even kill it. Girls, I believe our intrepid leader has volunteered us to take on one of the most powerful and dangerous demons in history."

"I didn't volunteer us for shit. If you're unhappy with the assignment, you're free to speak with Sesshoumaru yourself."

There was a pause before Miroku said, rather hastily, "I'd rather try my luck with Ryūkotsusei."

"Coward."

"Practical," Miroku corrected with a crooked smile. "Anyway, Sesshoumaru is right—deranged and going to get us killed, but right. Ryūkotsusei can't be allowed to live. For now, he takes precedence over Naraku."

"How bad is all this?" Kagome asked in a resigned voice.

"Ryūkotsusei," Miroku began with a sympathetic look at Inuyasha that the girls didn't understand but would very soon, "killed Inuyasha's father."

"But you _just_ said Inutaisho sealed up Ryūkotsusei!"

"He did," Inuyasha said, "and then Pop died from his wounds afterward."

Without a word, Kagome reached under the table and found Inuyasha's hand. She squeezed his fingers between her own and brushed her thumb over his calloused palm in slow, comforting circles. He didn't seem upset—it had happened years and years ago, after all—but she felt like his life was one struggle after another.

"Do you have a plan?" Sango asked, eating another heaping forkful of pie. She decided that if they were going on a suicide mission, one slice of pie wasn't going to kill her after all.

Inuyasha sighed heavily. "The sword."

"What, your gun's just not going to cut it?" Kagome joked weakly. (No one laughed.)

"For a number of reasons, it has to be the sword," Miroku explained. "Ryūkotsusei is an old demon, so he should be killed the old way. Plus, Tessaiga was made from Inutaisho's fang—it will be like his father is lending Inuyasha his strength for the battle."

"There's also the fact that I'm just a better hunter when I'm using Tessaiga," Inuyasha added, prodding his coffee mug away from him. "Unfortunately, it's easier to conceal guns these days. As if I don't draw enough attention to myself as it is…"

Underneath the table, Kagome squeezed his hand tighter.

The gang finished their coffee and pie before loading up the car. Acting as navigator, Sango checked the map for Bridgeport, tracing the route with her finger. "We're not even close. This will take a couple of days, at least."

"Drive through the night," Inuyasha instructed, stretching out in the back seat with Tessaiga in its chipped and rusted glory leaning against his side. Kagome perched on the far edge of the seat, one hand resting on his knee. Every few minutes, she would give it a squeeze. After a while he wondered if it was as much for her own sake as for his, like she was reassuring herself that he was still there.

"How'd Ryūkotsusei get out?" Sango asked in a casual voice, but they all knew what she was thinking.

"He's extremely powerful and was imprisoned years ago. Inutaisho's seal could have deteriorated over time, allowing him to break free on his own," Miroku suggested.

"Or Naraku let him out," Kagome countered. "Unless Ryūkotsusei is the mystery partner who helped Naraku escape in the first place. If Ryūkotsusei actually had the missing third of the Shikon no Tama, would that make him powerful enough to break Inutaisho's seal himself?"

"Someone would have spotted Ryūkotsusei if he'd been out longer than a few days. Trust me, he's noticeable. Someone had to release him—and he wasn't the one to let Naraku out."

"Did you ever meet him?" Kagome asked.

"Once. My mother took me to see him. It was after Pop died, so he was already imprisoned. Looked like this massive statue. I haven't thought about Ryūkotsusei since she, you know, passed away."

"In a few days, you won't have to think about any of it ever again," Kagome promised. Just like the night before, she spoke with a steely confidence that surprised him. Didn't a part of her—even if it was really, really small—imagine he could fail? That Ryūkotsusei would kick his ass, kill him just like he had his father, and that their little adventure would end as suddenly as it had begun?

He wondered if she knew how sure and confident she was about everything except herself. Someday, he thought, she'd realize just how strong she really was. Until then, she had him and Shippou (and Miroku and Sango) to help her through her moments of self-doubt and hesitation.

At least, he thought, at least he had one thing that his father never had. Inutaisho was like Sesshoumaru, someone who operated best on his own. His father had always fought his battles alone, relying only on his strength to defeat his enemies and protect his loved ones. Inuyasha had an entire group of people he trusted.

Okay, sure, they were a little ragtag. Kagome's power ebbed and flowed with her confidence in herself. Sango had only just realized her own potential but had yet to figure out how exactly to fill it. Miroku, thankfully, had a good handle on his own talents, and they worked well together. Other than that? Well, he had the cat.

Ryūkotsusei better watch his back.

Absentmindedly, he played with Tessaiga's hilt. It was dusty; he hadn't used the sword for months. And before that, he hadn't taken the sword out for years. He'd been honest when he told Kagome he was best with Tessaiga—guns were great, but only when he faced smaller demons. His sword…

His sword was a piece of his past, a part of his father that had always weighed too heavy in his hands. Inutaisho was legendary. He had been a protector, a powerful figure in both the human and demon worlds. Sesshoumaru had stepped into their father's shoes without question. Meanwhile, Inuyasha had never felt as comfortable about being the great Inutaisho's son.

His mother, when she was still around, had assured Inuyasha that he took after his father just as much (if not more so) than Sesshoumaru. It was why he'd inherited Tessaiga, to protect the people he cared about just as Inutaisho had done. But, after years and years of practicing with and then actually fighting with the sword, the half-demon had yet to feel like he was doing it right. There was more to it. He just couldn't figure out what that 'more' was, but there was no one around to teach him.

That was really why he chose guns over Tessaiga (although secrecy around humans was also a legitimate excuse).

Now, though, Ryūkotsusei was just days away and his friends had no idea just how doubtful Inuyasha really was.

To fill the long hours in the car, Miroku began telling Sango about his and Inuyasha's past adventures. He told them like they were these big fairytales. The girls listened attentively, partly for the entertainment value (Miroku could be dramatic), but also for the lessons they contained—how to kill a banshee, how to track a vampire, how to draw out different kinds of demons. With some encouragement, Inuyasha shared some of his own experiences, ones from before he'd met Miroku or during their brief times apart.

Sango sat quietly in the front seat, absorbing everything more seriously than Kagome. Inuyasha wondered if she was thinking about all the stories her own father should have told her, all the lessons he should have shared with her and her brother. Still, a big part of him (the bitter part) wanted to shake her; she was lucky that she had gotten a normal childhood. Inuyasha had never known anything but bloodshed and monsters.

A day into the drive, Kagome pulled out some old books the hunters had in the car, reading from earmarked pages. The gang went back over all their own adventures from the past half year, recounting triumphs and mistakes.

They also discussed all the loose ends, from Naraku to Naraku's mystery partner to the likely fact that one or the other had released Ryūkotsusei. And where did Kaguya fit into it all? Nowhere, probably. She was just a thorn in Kagome's side, a constant reminder of how much more Kagome had to learn.

They talked about Naraku, about what it would take to finally put him to rest.

They talked right up to the moment when Sango (who had taken over driving duties from Inuyasha, who had taken over from Kagome, who had taken over from Miroku), pulled alongside the Bridgeport exit sign. They'd been on the road for 42 hours with minimal stops for food and rest, but the sign looming ahead of them at three in the morning had come far too fast. Other than the car's headlights, it was pitch black. Clouds covered the moon and stars, and a thick fog seeped toward the highway from the city in the distance.

It was only after they had sat there in silence for several minutes staring at the sign (Exit 239—Bridgeport), that Inuyasha's look soured and his hackles rose.

"What's that smell?" he asked.

"What—Evil? Do you smell _evil_, Inuyasha?"

"I swear to God, Miroku, I _will_ hit you," the hunter snapped. "Come on, even _humans_ should be able to smell that; it's disgusting."

Sango rolled down her window, ignoring Inuyasha's loud protests. It was only open a few inches before she reversed direction, trying to seal off the outside air. She covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve, gagging.

"Smoke and rotten eggs," she said, her voice muffled.

By then, the smell had hit both Miroku and Kagome, who were on the opposite side of the car from the window. "God, what _is _that?" Kagome demanded.

"Sulfur," Miroku identified. "And a lot of it. I think we've found Ryūkotsusei."

* * *

><p>Even if it had been his human night (and he didn't have his demonic hearing), Inuyasha could have heard a pin drop.<p>

The city was eerily silent; there were no people, not even bodies. It was almost as if the thousands of inhabitants had just stood up and walked away. As the group moved down the middle of a street downtown, the stoplight ahead of them turned from green to yellow to red, then back to green again. Cars were scattered everywhere, most of them still lined up in the lanes, but they were quiet and motionless. Some had doors hanging wide open.

Uneasy, Inuyasha unsheathed Tessaiga. A familiar glow surrounded the sword as it slid out, and the rusty and pitted blade transformed into something much larger. The metal gleamed in his hands, and the sudden weight comforted him.

He had missed it.

Sure, he loved his guns, but he had a connection to this sword. It was the only thing he owned that linked him to his father, and he'd left it rusting in the trunk.

The first sign of Ryūkotsusei started slowly—the ground shaking under their feet. Miroku noticed it first as he slowed to a stop next to a pickup truck, his eyes glued to the window. Every few seconds, the glass rattled inside the door frame. There would be a short pause, then it did it again.

Sango noticed and tugged Kagome to a stop, who in turn reached out and grabbed Inuyasha's sleeve. They stood together in the street and watched the window rattle. Then, quickly, they felt the concrete trembling. _Tremor_, pause, _tremor_, pause...

"What—"

"Footsteps," Inuyasha identified before Sango could finish her question; he was staring into the distance, focused on a sound the rest of them couldn't hear. Beside him, Kirara bristled, her eyes narrowed in the same direction. "I forgot how big he was."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth that the demon itself turned the corner ahead of them. It stepped into an intersection, trailing a clawed hand the size of their Hummer along the side of a building. Windows shattered, and glass rained to the ground. His foot overturned a car, whose alarm immediately started blaring, ripping through the silence.

"Oh…" Kagome squeaked, followed by an even more dismayed, "Oh, _shit._"

Ryūkotsusei was as tall as the nearest skyscraper and looked more like a dragon than anything else. Its serpentine body snaked around the block, disappearing into the distance, and its eyes, blood red and glowing, was focused on the hunters.

"Not another freaking mask," Sango grumbled, pointing to the round object set in Ryūkotsusei's lizard-like head. It was a second face, small and more human-like than the dragon head it was mounted on. At Sango's words, Inuyasha flashed back to the Noh mask monster the group had faced in the abandoned theater months earlier—and he almost longed for that fight. Even trapped and badly injured, that night had been much easier than this was going to be.

Inuyasha gripped Tessaiga tighter, his eyes flicking from the sneering face set in Ryūkotsusei's forehead to the dripping fangs below it. "I need you guys to step back," he said, his tone heavy with an emotion he couldn't identify. There was a feeling swelling within him at the sight of Ryūkotsusei, something not quite fear but not confidence either. Whatever it was, he understood it meant he had to do this on his own.

"But, Inuya—!" Kagome started to protest, but he shook his head, cutting her off mid-word. He looked at her, saw how white she'd gone after getting her first real look at the demon. Her expression was determined, but the rest of her body betrayed her—she was terrified. Her hands trembled. Quickly, he reached out and grabbed one, comforted by the sight of her fingers disappearing within his own. He gave them a squeeze and rearranged his face into something confident, cocky almost.

"I'm not asking you guys to leave me for dead. Just get out of the way and give me a chance to take care of Ryūkotsusei myself."

Surprisingly, it was Sango who answered first. "Yeah, sure. We've got your back," she said, taking Kagome's other hand and tugging her away from the half-demon. It had to be her own unfinished business with her father that made her understand what facing Inutaisho's killer would mean for Inuyasha. She nodded encouragingly at the hunter. Miroku and Kagome reluctantly nodded as well.

Feeling relieved, Inuyasha quickly directed everyone. Sango mounted Kirara and took off for the sky, her hands buried in the demon cat's ruff. Miroku (after looking forlornly between his very tiny pistol and the demon the size of a skyscraper) ducked into a coffee shop down the street, already reaching into his pockets for the paper talismans he always seemed to have. Kagome glanced at the top of the twelve story building behind her.

"The roof?"

"You've got a quiver full of arrows, and that bank gives you a good position to shoot them from. Keep your hands steady and make every shot count."

"But, what if—?"

"For crap's sake," he cut her off as he used her jacket's collar to yank her forward. He kissed her rougher than he meant to, but when he bit down on her lip, she promptly nipped him back—and he almost smiled. One hand left the sword to instead tangle in her hair, angling her head just right.

"Now's not the time, guys," Sango called down to them, and the two hastily broke apart.

"When this is done, we're getting our own goddamn hotel room."

"Deal," she said before smacking her lips to his cheek one last time. "See you in a few." Then she was gone, across the street with the door shutting behind her.

Nothing left to distract him now, Inuyasha turned to face Ryūkotsusei.

The demon hadn't yet moved, venom dripping from its snarling jaw. "I know you," Ryūkotsusei's human face said, a smile revealing a jagged row of teeth almost as terrifying as the six foot long fangs just below. "I enjoyed killing your father; I am sure I'll enjoy _ripping you apart_ as well, half-demon!"

"Fuck you," Inuyasha retorted, adjusting his two-handed grip on Tessaiga before launching himself forward, one shoulder lowered and his sword skimming the ground. He dodged Ryūkotsusei's first swipe, jumped on the hood of a car, and used it to leap at the demon, his sword connecting with its underbelly—

Before bouncing right off with a metal-on-metal screech.

The recoil threw him backwards, and he hit the ground with a jarring thud. There was no time to get his breath back as, just seconds later, one of those Hummer-sized claws swiped overhead. Inuyasha rolled away, colliding with a fire hydrant.

"Slower _and _weaker than your father!" the demon howled, its voice reverberating through the air. "You will never kill me with a blade that dull. Try again—my flesh is like steel."

"Inuyasha!" Faintly, he heard Sango, who had to be hovering overhead just outside of Ryūkotsusei's reach. "_Inuyasha_! There's an open spot on its chest between its arms!"

The hunter picked himself up, leaning heavily to one side. Less than a minute into the fight and he was already aching and breathless. Within seconds he spotted what Sango was talking about—a large opening between Ryūkotsusei's scales that revealed skin already rotting and bleeding like an old wound.

_Inutaisho_.

It had to be where his father had sealed the demon. Once again, Inuyasha thought back to that day when his mother had taken him to see Ryūkotsusei, the monster who had taken her husband away from her. There had been a large fang piercing the demon's heart, pinning it to the cliff behind it. Inutaisho's claw.

With a deep breath, Inuyasha once again launched himself at the demon. Ryūkotsusei swiped, and he ducked. He jumped from one car to another, used a truck as leverage, rebounded off a wall, and flew through the air, arms raised overhead as he put all his strength behind a deadly swing, connecting with that gaping, bloody hole in the demon's scaly armor—

And was once again thrown backwards, his head colliding with concrete.

He wasn't strong enough.

Dazed, Inuyasha tried to prop himself up on one elbow, tried to use Tessaiga to help himself to his feet. There was a thundering noise, and it felt like all the oxygen was being sucked out of the air as Ryūkotsusei breathed in, preparing to destroy Inuyasha with a single breath, an energy blast from its dragon mouth.

"Watch out," Miroku shouted, appearing from behind one of Ryūkotsusei's feet. He threw a handful of talismans, which attached to a scale with a sizzle. Howling, Ryūkotsusei stomped his massive feet and threw his weight around. Miroku dodged in the opposite direction. Kagome must have sensed an opening from her perch atop the bank because an arrow whistled through the air, light streaming behind it, and embedded itself in Ryūkotsusei's shoulder. Several of its scales melted.

Too quickly for Inuyasha to react, Ryūkotsusei's tail whipped around in anguish and knocked the half-demon across the street. The hunter slammed into—and then through—the window of a coffee shop. As he lay propped against the counter, blood seeped from his forehead, plastering his bangs to his skin.

His hands were empty.

Time seemed to slow as Inuyasha—already sore and exhausted and beating himself up over the fact that _he was nowhere near as strong as Inutaisho, so how could he have ever imagined beating_ _Ryūkotsusei?—_saw Tessaiga sunk hilt-deep in the wall across the room. Struggling to catch his breath, he watched Ryūkotsusei's leg pass by the coffee shop, moving in the direction of the bank where Kagome was stationed. Kirara must have attacked from above because flames fell from the sky and sputtered in the street.

Angry with himself, Inuyasha tried to stand up but immediately fell back to the floor. His vision was hazy as blood flowed into his eyes. His blood… his blood felt different, sluggish and hot, burning hotter with each passing second as his body—for once in his life, he actually felt _frail_—refused to move. He couldn't do it. Being Inutaisho's son meant _nothing_.

The edges of his vision was tinged red, and the color seeped across his eyes. He felt a familiar and terrifying ache as his claws and fangs grew longer. He was losing control, just like in Azusa.

"No…"

But the power coursing through him was seductive. All he had to do was give in, and being Inutaisho's son no longer mattered because he'd be a full-demon, one strong enough to take on anything. Why was he resisting? The answer to everything was right there in front of him. Give in, and he could defeat Ryūkotsusei. Give in, and he could defeat anyone. Even Naraku.

_Inuyasha_.

It would be so easy.

_Not a monster._

_Inuyasha, I love you._

_Inuyasha…_

"Kagome! Hang on!"

Miroku?

"I'm trying!"

Her voice, so far away, was terrified, strained, desperate.

"_INUYASHA__!_"

He jolted upright, his vision clearer, the red leeching away.

"I'm coming, Kagome!" Sango screamed, but Inuyasha could tell Ryūkotsusei stood between her and saving Kagome.

Inuyasha stumbled to his feet, grabbed Tessaiga's hilt, and pulled. The sword slid from the wall, transforming at his touch with a blinding light.

"No!" Miroku shouted struggling against Ryūkotsusei's tail, which had him pinned to the wall across from the coffee shop. He was looking toward the bank's roof, his eyes wide and horrified. "Kagome!"

With a strangled shout, Inuyasha threw himself through the shattered window of the coffee shop and skidded across the concrete. There, not so far away, he spotted Kagome—freefalling, her hair streaming upward, her arms grasping at the sky.

"_KAGOME!_"

There was no way he'd make it in time—

But, as it turned out, he never had to. A figure, a gigantic dog, appeared in the sky. It soared directly beneath Kagome, catching her on its back with barely any room to spare. At first, Inuyasha thought that Inutaisho himself had been raised from the dead, called to battle by Inuyasha's desperate desire to save Kagome.

As the dog touched down beside him, the half-demon shook himself. This wasn't Inutaisho—he was much smaller, and his markings were different. Inuyasha finally recognized the true form of Sesshoumaru. Kagome slid down from the demon lord's back, and Inuyasha pulled her to him, tucking her head under his chin.

"Don't you everdo that again," he ordered, burying his face in her hair.

"It wasn't like I was _trying_ to fall off a building," she countered. Her voice shook despite her effort to appear unshaken by the near death experience, so he tightened his hold, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. She leaned into him, her arms looped around his waist. "Hey, now… Pull it together; we still need to kill this bastard."

"Yes," Sesshoumaru agreed, suddenly at Inuyasha's elbow in his human form. He brushed imaginary lint off his pristine suit, looking for all the world like he hadn't just saved the day. "Why on earth, little brother, have you not destroyed Ryūkotsusei by using the Bakuryūha?"

"The what?"

With a sigh, Sesshoumaru repeated himself. "The Bakuryūha—the Backlash Wave? Surely you have mastered that by now. It has been years since you received Tessaiga, after all, and even _you_ can't be that incompetent."

Inuyasha's stunned silence must have said it all, because his half-brother put his hand to his head as if a migraine were brewing. After a few calming breaths, he clarified.

"Concentrate," he chastised. "Feel Ryūkotsusei's energy and trust Tessaiga."

The hunter opened his mouth to argue, or at least ask for a better explanation, but Kagome gave him a gentle shove in the monster's direction. She was, unsurprisingly, hanging onto Sesshoumaru's every word and looking at Inuyasha's sword with new appreciation. It was almost as if she was expecting a magic trick—then again, having not grown up in a world of demons and magical powers and life-or-death battles, everything seemed to surprise and mystify her.

Reluctantly, Inuyasha eyed Tessaiga, comparing it to Ryūkotsusei in front of him. The dragon was swatting at Sango, who was making a valiant effort to draw the demon's attention as Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sesshoumaru conversed in the street. Miroku had taken a hard hit at some point, and half his face was now swollen and bruised. Still, he fought on, shooting his pistol at Ryūkotsusei's eye with one hand and throwing talismans with the other.

Trust the sword?

So far, the sword had failed Inuyasha twice. He wasn't sure if he could trust Tessaiga…

But he _could _trust his father.

Hoping he wouldn't get stepped on, the half-demon closed his eyes, felt the weight of the sword in his hands, listened to the battle raging around him. Immediately, he could feel it, that weightiness to the air that happened whenever a demon was nearby. With Ryūkotsusei, that weight was huge—pressing against his skin, almost suffocating now that Inuyasha focused on it. When he opened his eyes, he could actually see it—

Ryūkotsusei's power, his demonic aura, penetrated the air. It swirled in the streets, undulating like smoke. The dragon must have sensed Inuyasha was up to something, because he turned away from Sango and instead faced the half-demon head-on. Narrowing large, red eyes, the monster sucked in another massive breath before launching another energy bolt. Trusting Tessaiga, trusting _Inutaisho_, Inuyasha swung into the blast—

And it turned the dragon's own demonic aura against him. The very air spun with the power of Inuyasha's attack. It must have been visible to everyone because Inuyasha heard Kagome gasp behind him.

"No!" Ryūkotsusei howled. "This can't—!"

His death cry was cut off as the Backlash Wave tore through him, slicing up his massive body until chunks rained from the sky. Kagome squealed and ran to Inuyasha, ducking under his arm before blood splattered her hair.

Sesshoumaru, who still managed to look dignified even with a lump of dragon flesh on his shoulder, surveyed the damaged city. "Once again, you have left me with quite a mess to clean up," he stated with an unhappy sneer. Almost as an afterthought, he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and tossed it to his brother. "Carry this with you at all times. Now leave before I decide to make you fix this. I will be contacting you shortly with more information. I have news about Naraku's accomplice, but it can wait until tomorrow."

"No more dragons," Kagome begged him. "Can we try to keep the next demon under ten stories tall?"

* * *

><p>"Of course I agree we all need a bit of a break," Sango was saying, glaring at Inuyasha, "but what if something happens?"<p>

"Sesshoumaru gave me a new—and so far, still working—phone. You still have yours, right? Just give us a call," Inuyasha answered dismissively, shrugging into his jacket. He moved stiffly, his muscles sore from the beating he'd taken earlier that day. He knew he and Kagome would have to take it easy—just not _too _easy. "It's one night," he added, stubbornly. "It'll be fine."

"But what if it's not," Sango challenged. "Our luck hasn't been all that great lately."

"Really?" Miroku asked. While his girlfriend had been working herself into a frenzy, he had been enjoying the show. Kagome and Inuyasha were finally, _finally_, setting aside demon hunting for a night in a hotel room. He knew it was something the half-demon had been dreaming about for months, even if he'd never admit it. "Because we seem to be surviving an awful lot lately and coming out the other side stronger than ever. Sango, dearest, let them have their night."

"Like Inuyasha said," Kagome added, emerging from the bathroom with an overnight bag, "just give us a call if something happens." She paused, seeing the way Inuyasha was staring at her with a content smile on his face, and then blushed, feeling an exciting flutter in her stomach. "I can't promise we'll answer, though."

Miroku guffawed, but Sango—ever the protector—blanched at that. "Kagome—!"

Before she could get another word out, Miroku swung his arm around the brunette's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. When Sango turned the full force of her glare on him, he diffused her anger with a chaste kiss. "Relax. And remember, if those two are going to be in a hotel room together, that means we get this one to ourselves," he reminded her, his voice warm in her ear.

She melted.

"Fine," she relented. "Get out of here. But tomorrow, we're going hunting."


	23. Special: The Morning After

I'm re-reading _Opacity_ over the weekend and mapping out the rest of the story—or at least the next chapter or two. While I do so, I decided to release another "Special" (i.e. short) chapter to tide everyone over while I get my ducks in a row.

And as a bribe, have some fluff. Horror will return next update.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inuyasha_.

* * *

><p>Opacity<p>

Special: The Morning After  
><em>In which Kagome and Inuyasha get some alone time… and Sesshoumaru reveals something important.<em>

* * *

><p>For the first time in a long time, Inuyasha woke long after the sun was up. Early spring light filtered through the curtains, brushing against his eyelids. Several minutes passed as he lay there, absorbing the quiet and the calm, the feeling that—although it may be close—there was no immediate danger.<p>

Granted, a lot of the good will toward mankind he was feeling at that very moment had to do with the woman sleeping next to him.

Slowly, as if any sudden movement would startle her (a ridiculous worry, considering she was still dead asleep), he shifted to face Kagome. She wasn't exactly the prettiest sleeper (her eyelashes were clumped together by mascara, her long hair—inky black against the white hotel sheets—was tangled, and she curled into herself protectively), but she was calm and sweet and quiet. Best of all, she looked _happy_.

His hand was halfway to her cheek when his new, Sesshoumaru-funded cell phone rang. Loudly.

With a muttered curse, he slipped out of bed and quickly shut himself in the bathroom, bringing the phone to his mouth.

"What?" he snapped, although his voice was not as gruff as he wanted it to be. He blamed his unexpectedly good mood.

"It's a group."

"What's a group?" he asked, his voice hushed. The hunter leaned his ear against the bathroom door, listening for sounds of life. As horrible as it sounded, he was enjoying the quiet morning, knowing Kagome was close by but not awake enough to start her incessant chatter. (He knew it was coming. There was no way she was going to let this milestone in their relationship pass in happy silence—she'd want to _talk_ about it.)

"The occult morons who saw fit to raise Naraku from hell and helped him free Father's enemy," Sesshoumaru explained, sounding exasperated and bored all at the same time. It was a gift.

Inuyasha absorbed this, opening and shutting his mouth several times while he scrambled to map out the next step. "A group, huh? How many?"

This time, his brother definitely sounded exasperated. For the first time in a long time, his annoyance had nothing to do with Inuyasha. "If I had to make a guess," he said, a steely undertone to his voice, "I would have to call this group a cult. There are dozens, if not over a hundred, practitioners."

"Human?"

"Yes, thankfully."

Inuyasha hated to ask, especially since it revealed his cluelessness, but he forced the question out anyway. "What do we do about them?"

"Kill them."

"Kill them," Inuyasha repeated, his voice deadpan. "All of them? Your solution is to massacre hundreds of people? Really?"

Sesshoumaru huffed in exasperation, his impatience barely concealing a snarl at Inuyasha questioning his orders. "It was due to their own weak will and limited brain cells that they chose to align themselves with the pinnacle of evil, Inuyasha. Really, we would be doing the world a favor."

The half-demon brought his clawed fingers to the bridge of his nose and massaged away the headache already brewing. Only moments before, he reminded himself, he had been in such a wonderful mood. Think about Kagome. Think about her peaceful face nestled against the pillow; her long, slim legs curled under the sheets; her warm, bare skin… Calm flooded him but was quickly replaced by a gnawing hunger and heat. He quickly backtracked, thinking of other, much more mundane things.

It didn't help.

"Let's pretend for just a moment that I'd agree to the slaughter of hundreds of humans," Inuyasha began, glad to hear his voice sounded somewhat neutral, despite the sudden influx of emotion. In the next room, he could hear the soft noises that announced Kagome was waking up. "We don't have the time or the people or the resources to do it. We need another plan."

There was a beat of silence. "We must publically deface Naraku. Both figuratively _and_ literally."

"Public? Like, on television? And alert the world to the presence of demons?"

But Sesshoumaru seemed to be warming to the idea—well, as warm as the man was capable of. "I need to speak with Kagura, but I believe I may have found a solution."

"Just to clarify," Inuyasha hastily said, only half distracted by the satisfied sigh he could hear Kagome make on the other side of the doorway. "This solution does not involve us killing people."

"Not quite. It involves us killing just one in particular."

Naraku.

"Keep me updated," the hunter said quickly before snapping the phone shut.

The conversation ended just in time for him to hear Kagome call out, "Inuyasha?"

He tossed the phone next to the sink and exited. He stopped in his tracks barely out of the doorway, forcing himself to swallow hard. Kagome was sitting up in the middle of the bed, the sheets gathered around herself and her eyes heavily-lidded—looking well-rested and (his heart thudded in his chest) _happy_.

"Hi," she said and grinned.

"Hi," he answered hoarsely, closing the space between them. He pressed a chaste kiss to her mouth, worried that if he did anything more, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. "Good morning. I'll order us coffee and breakfast." His hand was halfway to the hotel phone when he felt Kagome's fingers tangle themselves in his hair and pull him back around to face her.

Her mouth was on his—hungry, demanding, and oh-so-sweet, nibbling on his bottom lip in a way that only fed the growing warmth in the pit at his core. Finally, she pulled back, breathless. They both were. "I love you," she whispered.

It only took a beat, which Inuyasha proudly thought showed how much he had grown in the past several months, for him to answer, "I love you."

"So," she said, leaning back against the pillows. The pinkness in her cheeks could have been embarrassment or desire, but probably both. "You said something about coffee?"

It arrived within minutes. Hot and steaming and so welcome that Inuyasha actually tipped the bellhop who had delivered it. He poured it into two porcelain mugs and handed both over to Kagome before very carefully crawling back into bed. Leaning back against the pillows, he purposely pressed his shoulder against hers as he took back one of the cups.

They drank in silence, managing to not make it awkward, although they both knew it could quickly veer in that direction.

"I—" Inuyasha started before snapping his mouth shut. He could feel Kagome's eyes on his jaw, but he kept firmly faced away. "Any regrets? You know, about last night?"

"None," she answered immediately. "In fact," she continued, and only his enhanced hearing alerted to him to just how much her heart was racing, "I was kind of wondering if we could—"

"I thought you'd never ask," Inuyasha said, grabbing both of their coffee cups and pitching them over the side of the bed. In that moment, he really didn't give a damn about making a mess—or about crazy Naraku-obsessed cults, for that matter. In that moment, all he cared about was the laughing squeal Kagome let out as he tackled her into the sheets, his hands on her hips and his mouth on her collarbone.

Everything else could wait.


End file.
